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The young actress who exchanges passionate art house drama for slick Hollywood comedy is labeled a practical careerist by sympathizers and a sell-out by serious-minded fans.
The exception is British actress Emily Blunt, who shifts effortlessly from last summer’s erotic coming-of-age drama “My Summer of Love” to the bubbly big city girl tale “The Devil Wears Prada.”
Meryl Streep receives the film’s best dialogue and spotlight moments as Miranda Priestly, the devilish editor of the fashion bible “Runway Magazine.” Anne Hathaway flaunts her girl-next-door charisma as Andy Sachs, Priestly’s overworked assistant.
But much of the sass, style and spite in director David Frankel’s (“Sex in the City” and “Entourage”) adaptation of Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling novel belongs to Blunt as Emily, Priestly’s previous assistant and an obsessively dedicated follower of fashion.
Every moment from Blunt is funny. More importantly, it rings true.
“My Summer of Love,” a love story about women from opposites of the British class divide, was an undiscovered summertime gem worth seeking. “The Devil Wears Prada” is anything but little seen, arriving in theaters with all the publicity and marketing oomph worthy of a summertime blockbuster.
For Blunt, the extra attention is well deserved.

Cartoon critters cause backyard chaos in the popular slapstick comedy “Over the Hedge.” The fat tabby cat Garfield lets loose a belch loud enough to rattle the windows in “Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties.”
But the dreamlike images animator Bob Sabiston creates via his digital rotoscope technique are more surreal and darker than any current kids cartoon whether big or small screen. Sabiston’s segment in “The Five Obstructions,” a 2003 experimental film by Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth, “Waking Life,” his chatty 2001 collaboration with filmmaker Richard Linklater, even his Charles Schwab TV ads, are set up for the creepiness and uneasy feelings that fill “A Scanner Darkly,” an adaptation of Philip K Dick’s sci-fi thriller.
Set in the year 2014, America has dissolved into a police state in order to win the war on drugs and stop the latest craze, a deadly pill named Substance D.
Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is an undercover narcotics cop looking to nab the dealers of Orange County, CA. His druggie contacts include the slackerish trio of Freck (Rory Cochrane), Barris (Robert Downey Jr) and Ernie (Woddy Harrelson) as well as the pretty dealer, Donna (Winona Ryder). But Arctor is over his head, more than he realizes.
“A Scanner Darkly” is a Linklater/Sabiston reunion but the film’s most memorable moments belong to the animator. The cops wear scramble suits, creating a constant flicker of images, in order to protect their identities. Cokehead nightmares include armies of beetles and bug-eyed aliens. It's intentional, sensory overload.
Dick’s thriller occasionally veers into confusion but the disorienting feeling suits the story well. “A Scanner Darkly” aims to make one feel uncomfortable, the last thing you’d expect from a kids cartoon.
If successful, “A Scanner Darkly” may pull adult animation out of its cultish corner and into the mainstream. After all, kids shouldn’t have all the fun to themselves.

“A Scanner Darkly” premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Warner Independent Pictures Films will release it in major US cities on July 7.