If You Actually Care About Devil Wears Prada Spoilers, Don’t Read

So, I saw The Devil Wears Prada, and I basically agree with most of the reviews I’ve read: Meryl Streep is fucking awesome; ditto Stanley Tucci; Anne Hathaway is too cute for words (and so, might I add, are Simon Baker and Adrian Grenier); the clothes are amazing; the dialogue is shockingly unsucky; and with all that, who gives a shit about the plot, anyway?

And I don’t give a shit about the plot, really. But I did notice one thing that I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a movie of this type before. You have the expected semi-lecherous older guy who’s in a position to advance our young heroine’s writing career–but rather unexpectedly, our young heroine never dissolves into a puddle of shock and disappointment upon realizing that–gasp–he’s only being so solicitous because he wants to bang her! She actually understands right up front that this is what he wants, because she has an i.q. in at least the double digits, yet she doesn’t particularly care, because A) he’s still in a position to advance her career and B) she wants to bang him, too. Which she does.

And neither one of them gets a comeuppance for it!

Sure, semi-lecherous old guy is dealt a large disappointment at the end–but no larger than the one dealt to a character we’re totally rooting for; the only message we’re meant to take from it is, c’est la guerre. Our young heroine never tells him off, or even officially breaks ties with him– she actually, it seems, understands the meaning of the words “rakish charm” from the get-go, and appreciates it for exactly what it’s worth. There’s no scene of her sobbing into her Ben and Jerry’s because she was in looooooove, and never could have predicted that the semi-lecherous older man was not! She also never tearfully confesses to the long-suffering boyfriend that she celebrated their temporary break-up by going to Paris fifteen minutes later and fucking the guy she’d been flirting with for months. Nor does she dramatically pay for that move in any way.

And while we’re on the subject of the long-suffering boyfriend, let me point out how refreshing it is that this movie actually offers an explanation for why he suffers so long as she grows increasingly distracted: they still have a lot of sex. Some of it beginning with her in obscenely expensive thigh-high boots and snazzy bustiers she gets free from work. That actually makes sense! What the fuck? It turns out Streep’s awesomeness is so distracting, you hardly even notice that a Hollywood movie just allowed an ambitious career girl to have a reasonably interesting, unpunishing sex life. Cool.