The Devil Wears Xhilaration Panties

I had the day off, so what else could I do but go to the 11:35 show of The Devil Wears Prada? Oh, that's right, I could "drag" Dave Gilmore to the movie. Normally the quotation marks wouldn't be needed, but that was before he started collecting candles and stopped eating meat.

Seeing a movie in Queens is always torturous. There are talkers. And not just normal movie talkers, like oh, that's funny, or oh, what did he just say? But seriously MOVIE NARRATORS. I thought I was safe the one time going to see Match Point but no, in Astoria, there will ALWAYS be a group of dudes saying stuff like, "OH NO HE DIDN'T!" even if you are at a Woody Allen film.

We were unfortunate enough to sit in front of two fashionably thin and distressed t-shirt wearing guys who literally read everything that appeared on screen. "THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. BASED ON THE NOVEL BY LAUREN WEISBERGER, ANN HATHAWAY. MERYL STREEP. STANLEY TUCCI." until the girl next to them practically ripped their faces off. Then, for five minutes we were treated to a narrative that included threats of slap fights.

But getting back to the movie. I've long known that New York is the city of assistants. What I did not know is that so many of them live in Astoria and would be so moved by this film that they would not only laugh riotously, but would CLAP throughout the entire film. It was like every girl and boy in the theatre was having their lives played out on the screen, and even though there was some inappropriate outburts (I'm thinking of the mystery person making emu noises and the explosive laughter during the most emotional scene) that was kind of cool.

The book itself was a guilty read, the kind of thing you tear through on a rainy Sunday afternoon, like a big bowl of popcorn for your brain, delicious and filling but nutritionally void. The movie made the smart choice of trimming down the cast of characters and keeping the story simpler, making the entire movie an improvement over the book. I won't get into a complicated analysis of the movie, but I'll say that Meryl Streep is amazing and Anne Hathaway is greatly underrated. Also, I want to make out with Adrian Grenier. Every day.