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Mary and I saw The Devil Wears Prada the other day. It's not a masterpiece, but it is a very good movie, based somewhat on Lauren Weisberger's book of the same name. In fact, I read the book after seeing the movie. The general story is still the same (a recent college graduate goes to work for the imperious editor of a fashion magazine, and loses sight of who she is and what's important to her before catching herself), but they arrive at the same conclusion in two completely different ways. Aline Brosh McKenna did an excellent job of writing a screenplay that is faithful to the book, yet improves on it. She combines some characters (the movie's Nigel is a composite of several male characters from the book), changes the relationships slightly, focuses less on what's going on in Andy's life and more on her life as the assistant to Miranda Priestly, editor of Runway magazine, and really captures the "New York"-ness of the setting. The actors were fantastic, particularly Meryl Streep (who, I confess, I wasn't that fond of before this) as Miranda Priestly, Anne Hathaway (who I loved in The Princess Diaries movies) as Andrea "Andy" Sachs, and Stanley Tucci as Nigel.
I'm generally not all that thrilled about books that are adapted for the big screen. Forrest Gump was a very funny book, but it morphed into a feel-good story for the movie, and I still won't watch the movie again. Dave Barry's Big Trouble suffered from being too faithful to the book, and lost something without the author's drollery. This, on the other hand, could stand as a lesson in how to take a book and turn it into a movie.
I recommend both. A B for the book, B plus for the movie.
