The Devil Wears Prada 2

Grade: C

The Devil Wears Prada 2’s trailer didn’t look promising. It is chock full of sequely dialogue (“Remember when we did this?”), and Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly character having no recollection of anything (“I’m sorry, who are you? You worked for me? Where was I?”). I give the movie credit for not suffering from those problems. I thought, for sure, they would milk the hell out of her now-iconic line that she would often use to end conversations: the soft, deadpan, sing-songy “That’s all.” Refreshingly, it’s only said once here. I still disliked the film, but for different reasons than expected.

I had never seen The Devil Wears Prada (2006) until I caught up with it last week, in preparation for this. I didn’t miss out on anything in the last 20 years. Once you get past the notion that Anne Hathaway could ever be considered frumpy, unstylish, and fat, it’s scene after scene of her trying to please Meryl Streep – resulting in her either failing, or lucking out by the skin of her teeth into doing something right. Finally, it ends with Hathaway quitting the job, which is what I wanted to happen the entire time. It’s only worth seeing if you’re a fan of the fashion side of it.

I wondered how Andy (Hathaway) would find herself working for Miranda (Streep) again for this sequel – but to its credit, I bought the reason why. After being laid off via text at an awards ceremony, Andy is brought back to Runway magazine as their features editor, after an unflattering puff piece went out. Fine, fair enough. They found a way to bring back Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt. Nigel is somehow still with Runway after all these years, and Emily is working for Dior, one of Runway’s advertisers. 

The new blood amongst the cast includes the likes of Kenneth Branagh, Lucy Liu, B.J. Novak, Tracie Thoms, and an unrecognizable Justin Theroux. I’ve never seen him with hair that color or that consistency. Caleb Hearon – a promising younger actor who did great work in Sweethearts, I Used to Be Funny, and most recently Pizza Movie – has some fun moments as the new Assistant #1 (Hathaway’s position in the first movie).

Hathaway, once again, is portrayed as a screwball, harried, scatterbrained romcom heroine. Cars only honk at her crossing the street when she’s frantically trying to find something, or make an appointment on time. No vehicles make a sound at her in the stress-free scenes. The plot involves the future of the company, who will run it, and what kinds of directions it will go if the people they don’t want to run it are in charge. That’s as high as the stakes get. I couldn’t care about that very much. It might not be the outcome you wanted, but life will go on no matter who ends up sitting behind that desk on that high floor. It’s all quite futile, ho-hum, and first-worldy. That’s all.

Grade: C