The Devil falls flat in glossy but listless sequel
Did we need a sequel to the 2006 hit The Devil Wears Prada? The original movie was a box office success and garnered a slew of awards, including an Oscar nomination for Meryl Streep, but the cast reportedly was hesitant to star in a follow-up. That a second film, with the rather uninspired title The Devil Wears Prada 2, was green lit, and that its stars agreed to reprise their roles, means they thought the story was worth revisiting. Or maybe everyone involved saw the potential for a built-in audience and an easy cash grab. Unfortunately, with Hollywood’s penchant for recycling old IP, I think the situation here is the latter.
Lauren Weisberger authored the initial book and its 2013 sequel Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns, an infinitely more colorful title than one that simply adds on an extra digit. Weisberger had no hand in the Prada 2 film, which isn’t based on her second Prada book at all. Instead, screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, who penned the first movie, returns here to write this original story, once again directed by David Frankel. The result is a lightweight movie with a clichéd, paint-by-numbers plot. The film’s only saving grace is the fun-to-view fashion, of which there is plenty, and which Frankel thankfully prominently features in both plot-driven scenes and fashion show montages.
For those who somehow missed the 2006 phenomenon, the Prada universe centers on Andy (Anne Hathaway), a serious journalist who, in the first film, takes a job as an assistant at Runaway, a preeminent fashion magazine. Weisberger based the magazine and its editor, Miranda Priestly (Streep), on Weisberger’s real-life experience as an assistant to Vogue editor Anna Wintour.
At the end of the first movie (minor spoilers, in case you do want to watch them in order), Andy leaves Runaway ostensibly to pursue bigger and better things than working at a fashion magazine. As Prada 2 starts, however, we learn Andy and her colleagues have been unceremoniously let go from their award-winning newspaper. The movie makes a pointed statement about the changing media landscape and the loss of journalism jobs, but even that welcome social commentary seems to be used merely as a plot device to place Andy back at Runaway and in Miranda’s orbit again.
The rest of the film follows Andy, Miranda, and Runway fashion director Nigel (Stanley Tucci) as they try to save the magazine from Jay (B.J. Novak), the smarmy son of its parent company owner. Emily Blunt’s ambitious and caustic Emily returns as well, working for Dior as “a vendor, not a visionary,” as Miranda dismissively remarks. Emily naturally has her own plans and motivations, and this time they involve her annoying tech titan boyfriend, Benji (Justin Theroux).
Streep is deliciously brusque and steely as ever, but McKenna’s screenplay doesn’t give her or the rest of the cast much to work with. A quickly whipped together romance for Andy in the form of a paper-thin sketch of a real estate developer (Patrick Brammall) feels tacked on. And Kenneth Branagh, as Miranda’s husband, gets a similarly underdeveloped, barely-there role. Lucy Liu, too, is wasted as Benji’s fashion maven ex-wife. And what of Miranda’s twins, mentioned but never seen in the first movie? They warrant only a passing comment here, and anyone hoping to see them as fleshed out young adults will be left still wondering what Miranda’s progeny must be like.
Cameos by Lady Gaga, Kara Swisher, Tina Brown, and Jenna Bush Hager, among others, provide some star-powered, momentary winking amusement. But no matter. Whoever chooses to see this film is probably watching it for the same reasons so many of us couldn’t tear ourselves away from the often cringe-inducing Sex and the City reboot: the story and dialogue are shallow and forgettable, but the clothes sure are fabulous.
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The Devil Wears Prada 2 is currently playing, including at the AMC Metreon, AMC Kabuki, and Apple Van Ness in San Francisco, the AMC Bay Street in Emeryville, the Landmark Piedmont, New Parkway, and Regal Jack London in Oakland, the Rialto Elmwood in Berkeley, and the Cinemark Century theaters in Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill.
