The Devil Wears Prada
I've finally been able to steal away some time for myself, after my seemingly interminable slavery to school, to spend some "quality" time with my sister, selecting this movie in hopes of reconciling the girly, dainty (ugh) side of me with my realistic, care-less pragmatic self.
To be rightfully honest, the plot of this movie isn't the work of some genius in which many years to come disciples will pay sincere homage to. Nothing of it will haunt you, no antagonist will wrench your heart and this protagonist takes no disposition in which one will easily grant sympathy for.
Simply put, it is another proverbial story in which one who is perceived to possess a supreme amount of power reigns with a draconian code of conduct towards her subordinates. Grounded on Lauren Weisberger's best-selling novel, the evil but admirable Miranda was allegedly based on the infamous Vogue editor, Anna Wintour (although from what I hear, Anna Wintour was mentioned as a different character many a time in the book itself.) Although treated in a unnecessarily harsh manner, Andrea Sachs (Anne Hathaway), an inhibited unstylish yet independent-spirited aspiring journalist, temporarily abandons her dreams converting to one of Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep)'s sophisticated minions. Most of the movie pays specific attention to Andrea's encounter with Miranda and in the end she takes an ethical re-consideration to her prior decision and leaves the glitzy glamourous life and a potential hunky man for a level-headed realistic job and back to her previous scruffy-looking unshaven man (Adrian Grenier). As if you couldn't tell from watching the trailer.
Up till now, I've had wrathful words for this movie, but yet it is categorized into one of those things you take guilty indulgence in, apologize for your superficiality and in time commit the same crime like an adulterous whore...
Same thing said for the attractions I (and I suppose many other women) have for sappy sob flicks whose entire plot can be forseeable and even calculated. Movies like 'Sleepless in Seattle' and 'The Notebook'(notorious tear-jerker). This is the same lure 'Sex and the City' has on me, I shamefully admit to.
Women adore 'Sex and the City' and 'The Devil wears Prada' because it strengthens further this embroidery of hedonistic illusions that we have meticulously concocted for ourselves, this mostly unattainable lifestyle. After mindful countless repetitive reinforcements, we've learned to associate
We've embraced these perceptions, caressed and put them on a pedestal. We all know that we faithfully tune in to these depictions because we live vicariously through characters who embody all of the above attributes. Women who wonder what living in the heart of New York is really like probably imagine it to be what is seen on 'Sex and the City', 'Will and Grace', 'Friends' and one of our first doses to New York City life, 'Seinfeld'.
How can I deny my affection towards these vices?
Point is, I don't. The habitual everyday life we surrender to drones on, is tiresome and at times melancholic excluding sporadic instances of euphoria, adrenaline-boosts, or woe. We critically rely on addictions, each and every one of us succumb to them. Most, society percieves as commonplace and the rest deal with law.
Recently, the Pussycat Dolls where asked what they felt their portrayal in the media represented and when they confidently gave the trite answer of 'women empowerment', I thought it was clearly laughable. Yet, a couple of years back I wrote a sound paper on how strong women of today were still submissive under discriminatory pressure of the media. It does not matter or perhaps makes minute differences. How determined, strong-willed, ambitious or powerful women may be, compact powder, Chanel lipsticks and La Perla lingerie will STILL have a market and continue to make adolescent girls go ga-ga over them.
To put it in one extremity, we can see ourselves as our own superheroes, out there in our world fighting off sexual discrimination and sexual assault, but at dusk, we strip that facet, recuperate, tend to wounds, meditate, cry if we must, book a spa appoinment, pamper ourselves, like the girlish bimbotic women we jeer at in the daytime. We have to embrace womanhood, an evil we have to adapt to, it is what makes us and at the same token, break us. A woman still has a need to feel beautiful once in a very while.
We come home after a long hellish day, to watch such movies.
Something to leave you with.
Source for pictures: Rotten Tomatoes
