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Joe Vitus
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 10:25 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
If I had seen DWP in a theater, or on a plane, I suspect I would have watched the whole thing and enjoyed it well enough. I loved Streep's performance, but after a few scenes, I'd had enough of it: campy, bitchy, knows her job. Got it. I know there's a "breakdown scene" later, and if anyone wants to tell me what chapter it's in, I'll jump to it, but I can't stick with the whole thing when there are other movies to watch, and tons of books to read.

Hathaway was ludicruos to me though. And Mo's comparison with Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face is apt. Of course, I don't expect Hepburn in a old studio-era vehicle to be anthing but delectable from the start, but it irritated me to see Hathaway unquestionably beautiful all along beneath that ugly hair cut and frumpy outfit. Why? Well, in the first place, the assumption that people who's life is obsessed with beauty wouldn't immediately recognize her flawless face and body because of the packaging, and thus would be wowed by the change, is just fatuous (I love the way Streep plays this: no shock, just a quiet recognition that she expected it all the time; in fact, Miranda only sees the change as another example of herself proven right).

But even more fatuous is the idea that any person, male or female, seeking a job at a major company as a way to leverage a better postion a year later, would present themselves so poorly. Does the kind of person who would go to work at a prestigious firm looking terrible on the basis that "my brains are what counts" even exist anymore? The basic preparation of a resume clues everyone in to the imporatance of presentation over accomplishment, and you don't get out of college without knowing that in the world of business you have to look like a success from the start, and that in our world "attractive" equals "successful."

Even if she wanted to make a different impression--smart, quick-witted, intellectual--she'd still dress as carefully as possible to present that image. Probably closer to a yuppie business look than a fasion-plate runway model, but she'd strive for polish. As would/does any man (watch the people of both sexes on The Apprentice). And there's no way someone with that perfect skin, thick, luxuriant hair, and obviously carefully watched figure, wouldn't get that her haircut was grotesque or that her clothes were ugly. Hell, she'd probably hear it from her boyfriend, or feel it herself walking down the street, long before she walked into the office. After all, she was previously preparing to be a lawyer. She's not aware of presentation as part of success?

So it was just a phony movie from the start to me, and kept me from caring about or interested in the lead character. The idea of watching her "growth" for 90 minutes seemed agonizing. All of Streep's delicious low-key campy perfection wasn't enough to keep me watching.

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jeremy
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 10:37 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
In many ways, The Devil Wears Prada, was a growed-up version of Anne Hathaway's break out film, the equally silly, The Princess Diaries. These and many films like are all variations on a theme: Cinderella.

Joe, I think you are being a little unfair in complaining about the contrivances in The Devil Wears Prada, but glossing over them in those films that you compare it unfavourably with.

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Marj
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 10:40 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 10497 Location: Manhattan
Joe,

While I do agree with everything you said, I fear you took the film too seriously. It is a comedy after all, and if you had been able to get past the obvious at the beginning you would have seen some excellent performances by Streep, Tucci and Blunt.

Are you going to tell me you have never seen a promo for TDWP? If you had you should have been prepared for the obvious lack of a professional start by Hathaway. In fact, thinking back her dress was quite appropriate for a girl like her. IMO, wrong for where she was going to work, but right for her. And when you see her transformation you'll know it could have only happened by working where she did.
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whiskeypriest
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 10:40 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 6916 Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
jeremy wrote:
I watched The Devil Wear's Prada on an aeroplane while eating with a plastic knife and fork. I quite enjoyed it, but I didn't feel I'd missed out on anything by not watching it in a more conducive setting.
Well, I for one have always found that real silverware makes all the difference.

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Joe Vitus
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 11:27 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
jeremy wrote:
Joe, I think you are being a little unfair in complaining about the contrivances in The Devil Wears Prada, but glossing over them in those films that you compare it unfavourably with.


I guess your responding to the comparison to Funny Face. But your missing the point of the comparison. It's somewhat like the way that we don't expect to see people's hair messed up when they're "driving" (i.e., sitting in front of a rear-screen projection) in an old film, as we would in a contemporary one that did the same thing.

But, at any rate, Funny Face isn't all that much itself. It's good, but not great.

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Joe Vitus
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 11:32 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
Marj wrote:
Joe,

While I do agree with everything you said, I fear you took the film too seriously. It is a comedy after all, and if you had been able to get past the obvious at the beginning you would have seen some excellent performances by Streep, Tucci and Blunt.

Are you going to tell me you have never seen a promo for TDWP? If you had you should have been prepared for the obvious lack of a professional start by Hathaway. In fact, thinking back her dress was quite appropriate for a girl like her. IMO, wrong for where she was going to work, but right for her. And when you see her transformation you'll know it could have only happened by working where she did.


Oh, I know. It just irritated me. I knew what I was going to get going into it, and basically I just wanted to see Streep (and I'd kept putting it off until your Blanche nomination made me go out and get it).

Another shallow movie that had a similar effect on me: Eddie Murphy's The Nutty Professor. It's all about learning to appreciate what's on the inside, but every possible effort is made to make his leading lady as white-looking and convetionally white-pretty as possible. Seeing Murphy's character wishing she'd love him as he made me wonder why Murphy, in casting the movie, couldn't love the actress as she was: without the blonde highlights and blue contacts.

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Syd
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 11:35 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12921 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
The real problem for me with The Devil Wears Prada are the scenes away from the fashion industry, particularly the ones with her boyfriend. The ones connected with her job are great, the other ones are awful.

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chillywilly
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 11:37 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 8251 Location: Salt Lake City
Joe Vitus wrote:
Another shallow movie that had a similar effect on me: Eddie Murphy's The Nutty Professor.

I agree on the shallow definition of that movie, but at the same time, it was geared to be an outrageous comedy that tried to inject a feel good story to it.

I can see some of the similar effects that TDWP gave off to you, but TDWP was more mainstream in it's comedic approach instead of the every changing moods and mindsets (and multiple personalities) of Eddie Murphy remake.

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chillywilly
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 11:39 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 8251 Location: Salt Lake City
Syd wrote:
The real problem for me with The Devil Wears Prada are the scenes away from the fashion industry, particularly the ones with her boyfriend. The ones connected with her job are great, the other ones are awful.

That was the main issue I had with the film as well. The boyfriend just didn't seem like he was cast well. Didn't fit the mold of who Hathaway's character should have been with.... and it had nothing to do with his nationality. His whole character just simply wasn't a good fit. It would have been better if no boyfriend existed at all.

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Syd
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 11:46 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12921 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
That was Jason Schwartzman. I had trouble with him in Shopgirl and Marie Antoinette, too.

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Joe Vitus
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 11:57 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
chillywilly wrote:
Syd wrote:
The real problem for me with The Devil Wears Prada are the scenes away from the fashion industry, particularly the ones with her boyfriend. The ones connected with her job are great, the other ones are awful.

That was the main issue I had with the film as well. The boyfriend just didn't seem like he was cast well. Didn't fit the mold of who Hathaway's character should have been with.... and it had nothing to do with his nationality. His whole character just simply wasn't a good fit. It would have been better if no boyfriend existed at all.


I agree. He was a generic pretty-boy, with a kind television commerical frat-boy playfulness, and didn't seem like someone Hathaway's character would gravitate towards. It was a shallowly-packaged commercial flick. But not without fun.

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Rod
Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 12:10 am Reply with quote
Joined: 21 Dec 2004 Posts: 2944 Location: Lithgow, Australia
Jason Schwartzman's one of the Coppola dynasty, which has produced an argument in favor of Atreides-type extinction of the line in his acting, the acting of his mother Talia Shire, and the acting of his cousin Sofia. On the other hand, arguing for Dioscuri-worthy veneration, is Francis' direction, Sofia's direction and Nicholas Cage...sometimes.

I haven't seen Roman Coppola's CQ so I don't know which side of the ledger he counts on.

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Joe Vitus
Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:43 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
For the record, I like Talia Shire and had no idea of the Coppola connection with Schwartzman.

If I remember correctly, a kid went to the Theater Conservatory at De Paul at the same time I did, and was a Coppola who got in through his name.

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billyweeds
Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:55 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
For the record, I totally agree with Joe's assessment of The Devil Wears Prada. I saw it in a theater and therefore made it all the way through thanks to the performances by Streep and Blunt (Tucci did little or nothing for me). But the movie is really truly silly, bordering on idiotic, and the argument that it's a comedy cuts no ice. Compare it with Tootsie, which had a far more outrageous premise and made perfect, touching, and hilarious sense in every way.

Hathaway's character was just as Joe described it. What he didn't say but I will is that her acting was atrocious as well.
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Joe Vitus
Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:58 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
Scoop was marvellous even though it's light, in the mode of Manhattan Murder Mystery. In fact, it's the first Woody Allen movie I've been completely satisfied with since that one.

Scarlett Johansson really can't act her way out of paper bag, can she? She seemed so right in Ghost World, and though I generally don't have anything good to say about Lost in Translation, her zombie quality seemed appropriate for the depressed, jet-lagged girl she played. But she keeps rivalling Uma Thurman for most frequent odd mannered performances, and I don't know how to respond to her. I don't exactly mind her stilted, high-school play performances. Somehow she's more appealing than some other better trained performers. And she's yet to come across to me as freakish or disturbingly unaware of the effects she's achieving, the way Thurman often does, and did especially in her own Woody Allen movie appearance in Sweet and Lowdown...I still don't know what the hell that was about.

Johansson's acting somewhat hurt The Black Dahlia, but it seems to sort of work in Scoop. Maybe comedy's just more forgiving of an off-beat style? And Allen's own performance is so mannered in a vaudeville-to-early-Hollywood style that her unnaturalness hardly stands out. Typical of Woody Allen, he's the only director who would make sure not to hide the lines on handsome Hugh Jackman's face. I'm surprised he let that big bulge in the bathing suit get a profile shot.

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