Perceiving Prada

It’s not very often that I will go out of my way in the middle of the week to watch a movie. Between work, school, family, and friends I feel like there is a better way to be spending my time. Miraculously, I found myself pulling up a movie on my laptop on a Tuesday night. I had recently seen a clip of the movie The Devil Wear Prada. I had never seen the movie before, so that short snippet was enough to spark my interest, it was also the only movie that came to mind that I hadn’t already memorized the dialog to (i.e. Mean Girls, Pitch Perfect, The Count of Monte Cristo).

For those who haven’t seen The Devil Wears Prada, it is about a new graduate who, in order to work her way up in the world of journalism, works as the assistant for a demanding editor-in-chief of a fashion magazine.

I sat through the movie, laughing through the funny parts, cringing when something went wrong, and making my predictions as the plot carried on. Overall I would say that I enjoyed the movie. I understood the conflict of doing whatever it takes to succeed while also being true to who you are. However, I did not understand what makes Anne Hathaway, the main character, a good candidate to undergo through yet another fashionable transformation, she already did that in Princess Diaries. I also realized that I must not understand fashion at all. In a movie where fashion was highlighted, I wondered how they put together some of the outfits and if people actually wore such outlandish clothes. Other than that, I thought the content was good and uplifting. There was little gore, few swear words, and in the end I was satisfied.  

I can’t see how The Devil Wears Prada will have a lasting impact on my life, it probably won’t. It has not persuaded me to wear heels on a daily basis, or work for a high-end magazine. Yet the movie helped me appreciate my work place, and solidified my realization that I could never be a fast-paced, high maintenance, busy city girl. I like who I am.