Where is David?

An interesting thing about Thailand is that movies are really cheap here, just $2.50 for a ticket. Ok, actually, that’s not such an interesting fact, but let’s roll with it. The point is, I usually watch about a movie a week in the theaters and figured I could share this element of my life for the benefit of mankind in the form of movie reviews.

Minor problem, however. Sometimes, movies arrive in Thailand months behind their American debut, thus nullifying any impact these reviews will have on the majority of people’s choice in movies. Still, I persist.

The first movie I’ll put on this site is ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. I haven’t read the book, so unfortunately my comments won’t do much good for people who would be interested in how it would compare, but I do consider myself an insightful movie-goer and hope some of these comments help people in some way.

Upon hearing the title and seeing the advertising for the film, I immediately thought ‘Chick Flick’. While ‘chicks’ might get more out of this film than others, especially in the fashion industry, don’t be scared away by this movie for that reason, cause I think it has something to offer almost everyone.

Meryl Streep is great, as usual, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for this role. In addition to her, the film is supported by a great supporting cast, and I can’t think of anyone in the film who I would consider did a poor job.

The lighting and cinematography are ok, but this film isn’t about spectacular film style anyway, so that’s to be expected. It’s done in a somewhat romantic comedy style, lots of soft lighting, easy on the eyes, with a realistic feel but not video-y at all. gets the job done in this department.

People who would really enjoy this movie are those who have worked in the entertainment/media industries before. In my experience in working at a record company, there were basically two kinds of people, complete jerks (trust me, I can think of many more colorful words to call these people, but I’m trying to clean up my language here) and really cool down-to-earth people. One part of this film I’d have to disagree with is that the characters are often blends of these two different types, which is something I never saw working in the industry (3+ years).

The character arc of the main character (Andrea) is a bit cheesy and predictable, but luckily there’s so much more to this movie than that plot line that it’s hardly noticeable. Story isn’t this movie’s strong point, but the great job it does at showing an interesting portrait in a life in ‘haute couture’ overshadows this.

I’d recommend it to most people (except kids and frat dudes).

8/10