The Devil Wears Prada

The key acting decision in David Frankel’s 2006 film is the refusal to shout. Meryl Streep took Miranda’s voice from Clint Eastwood, who she said never raises his, so that everyone has to lean in to listen and he becomes the most powerful person in the room by default. The blow-up scene a workplace comedy trains you to wait for therefore never arrives; the cruelty is delivered at conversational volume. Streep had turned the first offer down as not reflecting her value to the project, and came aboard once it was doubled. The second concrete thing is the wardrobe. The official costume budget was one hundred thousand dollars, yet Patricia Field put roughly a million dollars of clothing on screen. The gap exists because most major designers refused to lend for fear of crossing Anna Wintour, and it took Prada to break the deadlock. The clothes double as a record of who would risk Vogue and who would not. Emily Blunt was found by accident: more than a hundred actresses were seen before she was spotted reading in her own English accent while auditioning for a different film on the Fox lot. Not for you if: you want the industry punished. Andy walks away but gets the newspaper job on Miranda’s reference, and the boss keeps the last word.