It’s really starting to get difficult to take my children to the movies. During the school year, I can never get away from studies long enough to take them, so summer is it. We like to sit in the theater and have popcorn and soda and enjoy a movie together. And it’s great to escape from the hot, muggy weather into the coolness of the theater. But we don’t get to do it as often as we would like because Hollywood doesn’t make enough teenager movies so I’m forced to either take them to see a little kid’s movie (of course these are beneath the dignity of a teenager) or an adult movie (there doesn’t appear to be anything in between). Samantha still likes the kid’s movies but she also wants to see some adult movies as well.
And then there’s the peer pressure. What do you do when a Christian mom lets her ten-year old see the movie and another Christian mom lets her fourteen-year old see the movie? I decided to take them to the movie. Sometimes you hold the line and sometimes you give up turf that isn’t worth fighting over. I thought The Devil Wears Prada was a good movie to give in to. Anne Hathaway is a cute actress that the girls like and I thought that the premise would be interesting for them to watch. I want them to get an understanding of the business world (even if it is exaggerated, there are still some fundamental truths I can use — I did the same thing with The Apprentice as well).
The movie was funny and Streep was wonderful. What I loved about her character was that she was incredibly soft spoken and yet looks so cold and arrogant. There was such power in the very fact that she was soft spoken, she didn’t have to raise her voice to get her way, she did that with criticisms. She had a lot of power and wasn’t afraid to wield it. She was also ruthless and got what she wanted. And it is amazing how she got everyone to do her bidding. I don’t want to say too much so I don’t ruin the movie for you but the character was a brilliant women who had the ability to manipulate all those around her. And what’s amazing is she’s portrayed, at times in a sympathetic light. You can almost see her point of view. She just wants people to do their jobs to the best of their ability but in the long run their jobs are just to do her bidding even when it’s not in their best interest to do so. In some respects she really does remind you of the classical view of the devil — manipulating people to do his bidding and thinking it was in their best interest to do so.