The Devil Wears Prada 2
Rating: 3.5/5
The much-anticipated sequel is finally here with megawatts of star power and the returning cast featuring Anne Hathaway (Andy Sachs) and Meryl Streep (Miranda Priestly) along with Stanley Tucci (Nigel Kipling) and Emily Blunt (Emily Charlton).
In this instalment, they must navigate a changing media landscape that was once a playground for the likes of Miranda to do as they please, and allow the talentless, entitled lot like Emily to run amok. But now, it’s the passion of the once clueless Andy who must save the movie’s dying fashion glossy, Runway.
On paper, it’s fan fiction. The cast is years older but not much wiser, and there are plenty of easter eggs sprinkled about for devout fans. From the gala celebrating Miranda’s bane in “Spring Florals” to her reliving Nigel’s excitement about a doomed promotion, it’s the movie’s approach to Andy that becomes its saving grace, rescuing it from what could have been a lacklustre mimic of the original material.
The opening scene sets the tone for what’s to come as Andy and her colleagues receive notice that they have all been fired from their jobs at a respected newspaper where they have all scooped many an award.
Simultaneously, Miranda is dealing with a major ethical crisis that puts her in the dog box with her advertisers, noticeably their biggest client, Dior. She now lords it over assistant Emily, who does not hold back in throwing her weight about.
Andy is brought in to Runway magazine as features editor to help resuscitate the publication’s image, but the rug is pulled out from everyone’s feet when its chairman, Irv Ravitz (Tibor Feldman), dies unexpectedly.
It’s an exciting return to the world of glossy magazines for frosty Miranda, whose walls come crumbling down a little more than they did in the movie’s first merry-go-round.
While the script is honest about the dangers of today’s corporates and their views behind the media landscape, it’s the movie’s empathy for Miranda that also blinds it from a truth it can’t quite accept.
In a shocking twist, Blunt’s Emily betrays her boss after being undermined by Miranda during all her years of service. Other staff members have similar experiences under her rigid leadership.
Struggling to adjust to modern workplace expectations, Miranda is no different from a 1950s executive who still expects staffers to deal with second-hand smoke and put up with sexual assault.
She derides staff and makes no plans for their growth, an attitude that makes Nigel a tepid right-hand man and turns Emily into a vicious power-climbing gold digger.
But while reminiscing about a scene where she blithely assumes Andy and the rest of the world want a part of her glamorous life, she realises she was wrong to think that others did not understand the effort required to reach her status.
By keeping her in Runway, rather than elevating her to a higher position, or showing her the door, The Devil Wears Prada 2 celebrates the old guard’s inability to adapt or evolve.
It positions someone like Miranda as a messiah who — like her real-life counterpart Anna Wintour — is behind the degredation of media houses, while glamourising elites like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk who think so little of credibility.
It’s a checkerboard that keeps Miranda and Andy on top and safe while other characters like Nigel and Emily are much the same as when we first met them in 2006.
Celebrating the finest in fashion and flashy costuming that has turned each of its characters into icons, The Devil Wears Prada 2 primes itself as a potential trilogy.
If so, hopefully the next saga will be a lot more honest about the gatekeepers who polish blinding glass ceilings, and participate in legacy media fast becoming forgotten in a digital landscape.
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