‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ Fits Well But Doesn’t Slay

A charming enough and well-polished sequel that unfortunately falls prey to the common pitfalls of diminishing returns, David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada 2 is smart enough to lean heavily on the core four ensemble and humor of its predecessor, so it’s easy enough to enjoy while glossing over its rougher edges. While it’s a bit clumsy in its handling of today’s consolidation of culture by the corporations that buy and sell its traditional tentpoles of art curation, and certainly relies heavily on cliché, there’s still enough to enjoy here to make it worth recommending as an easy watch, especially for those who loved the first film.

Following Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway; Mother Mary) once again, as she is suddenly out of a job when her news outlet is the victim of budget cuts, she quickly lands back on her feet with a job at Runway magazine. She finds herself working for her recently disgraced ex-boss, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep; Hoppers), tasked with helping her navigate the industry’s evolution and flux in an era when magazines have gone digital, and content is favored over thoughtful journalism.

The film can be commended for its attempts to explore more complex themes of our modern culture than the first film did, diving into the current dire state of journalism and the encroachment of corporations into our shared cultural landscape in ways you wouldn’t necessarily expect from a legacy-sequel comedy. Time is even found satirizing the nepotism and tech-bros leading the destructive charge to dismantle cultural touchstones, effectively showcased through B.J. Novak’s (Vengeance) and Justin Theroux’s (Fallout) characterizations. Unfortunately, the push and pull of delivering fan service also means the film’s more poignant aspects don’t work as well as they could.

The cast, fortunately, keeps the story engaging despite this, with Streep and Emily Blunt (The Fall Guy) delivering both strong comedic and dramatic work that is more than worthy of the characters they originated, and Stanley Tucci (Conclave) once again charmingly employing his gravitas to great effect. Anne Hathaway, while still fumbling and likable, doesn’t fare as well. Hathaway overacts a bit too much and fails to make her romantic subplot believable, though in that case, at least the casting of her love interest bears some of the blame.

While the film isn’t nearly as strong as the original, with less of the narrative cohesion and comedic bite that made it the pop cultural phenomenon it became, this sequel is still enjoyable enough to make The Devil Wears Prada 2 a sequel worth recommending at least for the fans who have yearned to return to the runway and spend time with the characters they know and love, even if it feels a bit last season in terms of unoriginal familiarity.