Millions lapped up Lauren Weisberger's barely fictional account of her days as assistant to notorious Vogue editor Anna Wintour. Millions more will doubtless go ga-ga for this slick adaptation of the chick-lit classic.

Put together with all the Sex And The City smarts of director David Frankel, it's a glittery collection of Faustian dilemmas, withering put-downs and romantic entanglements, all draped in enough posh clobber to make a catwalk collapse.

It also has the endearingly doe-eyed Hathaway undergoing another Princess Diaries-style makeover from endearing frump to designer-clad hottie.

In addition, Meryl Streep studiously nails the role of the boss from hell, showing that beneath the steely exterior lies... a skeleton of barbed wire (though her protestations that her character is not based on Wintour are about as convincing as Tom Hanks' assertion that he never saw the original Ladykillers).

So what's not to like? Well, it's superficial (the most expensive Starbucks ad ever?), mistakes rudeness for wit, and has all the moral rectitude of the industry it ostensibly lampoons.

The highly unlikely starting point sees Hathaway's journalism graduate and total fashion victim Andy being made second PA to Runway magazine's tyrannical editor Miranda Priestly (Streep).

This despite the fact that Andy wouldn't know Miyake and Chanel from Marks & Spencer, has never heard of Miranda, and can’t spell "Gabbana". So much for journalistic thoroughness.

Like everyone else at Runway, Miranda's snitty British first assistant Emily (Emily Blunt) is quick to give Andy the benefit of her searing fashion industry 'wit' (i.e. various spins on her being fat and/or scruffy).

Andy is utterly unsuitable for the job - until Miranda's right-hand man Nigel (Tucci) gives her the Cinderella treatment. Slip her into a pair of Jimmy Choos and suddenly she's the most efficient PA in New York, London, Paris and Milan. Oh, pur-lease.

But performing the impossible (like procuring copies of the next, unpublished Harry Potter instalment for Miranda's bratty twins) and trolling off to Paris takes its toll on Andy’s private life.

She justifies it all by citing Runway as a forum for deep literary thought and hard-hitting articles. Sorry, but didn’t we just hear Miranda bemoaning the lack of "thin female paratroopers" to everyone's amusement?

The two-faced attitude is summed up when Andy's boyfriend (Adam Grenier) tells her that she has lost her integrity.

It's not a bad film, but if the look is Prada, the message is Primark.

Elliott Noble