Before the protests come raining in, I know that The Devil Wears Prada has a disputed status as a romcom. My working definition of a romcom is anything that feels like a romcom, therefore I think this film, in all its Meryl-induced glory, counts as a romcom. It’s got a makeover montage. It carries out a minor love affair with New York City. Andy Sachs (played by Anne Hathaway) is the quintessential romcom heroine, struggling to balance work and her personal life. And Meryl Streep does an incredible turn as the bitchy boss, Miranda Priestly, essentially defining the archetype for years (hello, Lucy Liu in Set It Up). Nate, Andy’s boyfriend, is a nonentity, barely registering as a main character. So if there is a romance, I don’t think the interesting sparks are flying between Andie and Nate.

 

Since I’ve decided this is a romcom, and a romcom whose main focus is Andy’s workplace and her job as second assistant for Miranda at Runway magazine, Andy’s relationship with her work and how it affects her love life is definitely ripe for analysis. There are two potential love affairs for Andy: between her and her female work friend, Emily, or between Andy and the fashion industry itself. Go with me, here. Besides, the “Nate is an asshole who doesn’t support Andy in her career” thing has been explored recently, which I am all for. Since this film basically launched Emily Blunt (as Emily) into the superstar that she is, I think it’s worth taking a look at how this film deals with a non-romantic relationship, that of Emily and Andy. I think it’s also worth tracking Andy’s relationship with the fashion industry. Let’s discuss.

 

While watching this movie, I genuinely found myself saying, out loud, “why can’t they just be friends?” Yes, when Andy applies for the job as Miranda’s second assistant, she’s hilariously out of her depth — she’s a little frumpy looking (as if Anne Hathaway could ever actually look frumpy), she knows nothing about fashion or the fashion industry (hello, cerulean sweater speech), and her journalism degree from Northwestern means nothing when she’s tasked with answering the phones and catering to Miranda’s every whim.

 

Yet, the film decides that Miranda’s ire is not enough, and Emily, Miranda’s first assistant, outright dislikes Andy really before Andy even opens her mouth. Yes, Emily has no reason or obligation to like Andy, but she also has no reason to dislike her as much as she does. If Andy is such a frumpy misfit, then Emily will have no problem outshining her as the first assistant, and the hostility and honestly perfect eye rolls that Emily gives Andy seem personal, not just the disdain of someone watching a coworker fumble through a job with, can I just say, absolutely zero job training. What would this movie have looked like if Emily had, instead, showed Andy the ropes on her first day at the magazine? As Andy’s romantic life falls apart throughout the film, wouldn’t it have been nice if she’d received support at work?

 

This film also makes the case that the fashion industry has depth and meaning that Andy, kind of snobbishly, can’t see at the beginning. I think it’s interesting to watch Andy fall in love with her job, whether it’s a makeover montage with Stanley Tucci, a thrill at anticipating Miranda’s needs, or simply delighting in being a part of the industry. Not all important work to be done in publishing is at The New Yorker, and Andy realizes that.

 

When Andy is resistant to changing herself to fit the job, or even excelling at the job in any way, she and Emily continue to not get along. Although I’m a firm believer that women don’t have to be friendly to anyone and everyone, it does pain me a little that Emily continually gossips with other women at Runway about Andy and still gives her essentially zero job training. It takes the heavenly Stanley Tucci (who, despite googling the name of his character three separate times, shall forever be Stanley Tucci in my head) to save Andy with a classic romcom makeover. In all fairness, the system is kind of stacked against a blossoming friendship between Andy and Emily — Miranda calls Andy “the new Emily,” and putting them as first and second assistant implies some level of competition between the two, which only increases when Miranda begins to like Andy, even asking her to deliver the almighty “book” to Miranda’s home at the end of the day, a job usually reserved for the first assistant.

 

However, the film gives us a glimmer of hope that the two could get along, teasing a potential camaraderie, if not outright friendship, between Andy and Emily in and around the fancy Runway event that both assistants are called in to work. Tasked with the names of all the important people that Miranda is too fabulous to remember, Emily is sick and blanks on someone’s name just as they begin to approach the very presence of Meryl Streep. Who swoops in to bail her out but Andy, and the two share a nice moment of acknowledgement and gratitude. Emily thanks her, Meryl is happy, and Andy gets called by her own name. All is well! The film is showing us, the audience, that there is a version of this narrative in which Emily and Andy work together to make Miranda happy, which is a full time job for the two of them, and although they might not become friends, they can both get what they want out of this job while respecting one another.

 

This is particularly salient as the film teases Andy’s potential career fulfillment just as her personal life is really truly falling apart. To attend this fancy party, she has to miss Nate’s birthday. Sidenote: who celebrates their birthday on their actual birthday? Is this a 2006 thing? Who puts her in perspective but Emily, reminding her that this job is important: “just deal with it. You have to be here,” which is the exact advice I want to give Andy at that moment. By giving Andy and Emily this scene at the party, it’s almost like the film wants us to start picturing a life for Andy that falls decidedly out of romcom land: Emily and Andy are no longer trope-y work rivals, she dumps her terrible boyfriend, and Andy find success and fulfillment in her work life, a choice that many working women make. Yet, that’s not how this goes.

 

Throughout the movie, Emily has been looking forward to the Runway trip to Paris in which she’ll get to mingle with fabulous people, shop high fashion items, and support Miranda as the first assistant. When Miranda tells Andy that she wants her to go instead, Andy immediately protests, trying to let Emily go. Miranda then threatens Andy’s job, making it clear she has no choice to go. After Emily is hit by a car while fetching scarves for Miranda (a decidedly second-assistant job), Andy eventually breaks the news of Paris to her, dashing any hope for the two of them to be friends. Although Andy ends up quitting her job in Paris and making up with Emily in the end, giving her all the clothes she bought in Paris, I found myself wishing that the film did more to break that trope.

 

Although Miranda is held up as the archetype of the mythic bitch boss, the movie actually does a lot more to undercut her status as a trope than I remembered, showing her as a complex, smart businesswoman, who is genuinely good at what she does, even if she has to throw people under the bus to do it. When Andy quits, effectively resolving to never be like Miranda, it is not without respect for her former boss, and the movie doesn’t want us to hate Miranda. But what of the stereotype that women at work can never be friends?

 

Although one of the film’s final scenes is of Emily telling Andy’s replacement that she “has big shoes to fill,” I wish they gave me more. Women at work are under no obligation to be friends with one another, but wouldn’t it be sweet and subversive if Andy and Emily had felt a sense of kinship from the get go? If, instead of hollow romantic reconciliation at the end, Andy had realized that she could be happy at her job, thanks in part to a support system at work? Although I will always be grateful to The Devil Wears Prada for giving us the human sunshine that is Emily Blunt and her acting career, the way this film ends might not live up to its semi-subversive romcom promises.

 

She doesn’t give up her job to be in a relationship, at least, but we do get the sense that Andy doesn’t need to have romantic prospects to flourish — we’ve seen her do that just fine while at Runway and also in her decision to leave it. But, the film still ends with her admitting to Nate that he was right and the two of them (presumably) getting back together. Yawn. I hope this is Andy doing the right thing for her career and her personal life, but I kind of think she’s better off without Nate.