Double Feature

April 2011 - The more I see of Meryl Streep, the more I appreciate her as an actress. Not every movie she makes is great, but Streep always seems to rise above the material and enjoy herself in the process. She adds a touch of class that makes a barely watchable movie worth watching.

Case in point: The Devil Wears Prada, a PG-13 film from 2006. Streep and Anne Hathaway star in this satire of the fashion industry. Stanley Tucci and Adrian Grenier also have featured roles.

Hathaway plays Andrea "Andy" Sachs, a recent graduate of Northwestern University, trying to make it as a journalist in New York City. Despite the fact that Northwestern has an excellent J-school, and despite the fact that Andy was editor of the school newspaper, she has apparently been unable to find any kind of journalism job in New York. She applies to a big publishing company and ends up interviewing at a fashion magazine called Runway, where Miranda Priestly (Streep) runs the show.

Despite the fact that Andy doesn't know Halston from a halter top, she gets hired as Miranda's second personal assistant. Now Andy must decide whether she can survive the fashion biz without selling out.

Overall review: Ehhh, it was OK. Despite the fact that the movie runs less than two-hours, it felt longer. Streep was good and Hathaway was OK, but her wardrobe left a lot to be desired. I also didn't like the music very much; some of the transitions were extremely abrupt.

The music of Swedish pop band ABBA serves as the inspiration for Mamma Mia! Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Allentown's own Amanda Seyfried star in this 2008 film based on the Tony-nominated Broadway musical of the same name. The solid supporting cast includes Colin Firth, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski.

Seyfried plays a young woman named Sophie, who's about to marry a hunky Greek lad named Sky. The wedding will take place on a Greek island at a hotel owned and operated by Sophie's single mother, Donna (Streep). As Sophie learns from reading her mother's diary, Donna had one wild summer 20 years ago and Sophie was the result. In a desperate attempt to find out who her father is, Sophie secretly invites the three men mentioned in the diary (Brosnan, Firth and some other guy) to her wedding.

While Sophie tries to figure out which of the men is her dad, and while Donna tries to recover from the shock of seeing her three former lovers again, everyone gets to sing one or two of ABBA's hit songs with the villagers acting as the Greek chorus. They also dance while they sing.

Overall review: Ehhh, it was OK. The plot is kind of lame and the actors, for the most part, aren't very good singers (Streep isn't bad and Baranski is quite good). But, the music is familiar, the dances are fanciful and everyone seems to have a really good time. That enthusiasm makes Mamma Mia! rather enjoyable to watch.