Early frontrunner for “Unnecessary Sequel of the Year” is The Devil Wears Prada 2, the twenty-years-later follow-up to an iconic film that needed neither re-telling nor revisiting, but -now that you’ve done it- the cracks in the exterior are showing, knowwhatI’msayin’? No. You probably don’t. I shall elaborate.
At the end of the original, we re-evaluate the two characters we quite enjoyed: the hapless-waffling-turned-confident-adult assistant to the editor journalist, Andy (Anne Hathaway), and her Hitler-with-a-heart-of-gold boss, Miranda (Meryl Streep). The original worked because Miranda was a fashion industry tyrant and Andy had to figure out how to both appease her and keep her own self-worth intact. At the end of the film, we soften on Miranda, the titular Devil in Prada, because Andy softens on her.
It is now twenty years later, and the scriptwriters have some problems. The first is they have to make Andy an assistant again despite the fact that she’s confident, capable, and twenty years have passed. The second is that the writers need to make Miranda a monster again despite the fact that Andy did her several solids twenty years ago. Otherwise, the film has no villain. The third and most important challenge is that the industry is dying. Printed media is on its deathbed, sadly. And with it has gone investigative journalism. Capitalism and the RW have seen to that. Hence, trying to create the same film again will take some doing.
The first and third problems were solved in the first five minutes. Andy is about to win a prestigious award for journalism when she gets fired on stage. Yeah, that tracks. Read the Times or the Post these days, and you’ll get an eyeful of where media integrity and investigation has gone. Trump shouldn’t be President. His crimes and character should have seen to that long ago. And the Washington Post that undermined Nixon’s presidency by exposing Nixon crimes should have 86ed Trump looooooooooong ago. Instead, democracy has died in darkness, ya jerks. Apparently, if you are a RW monster and you cry “fake news” enough, you can make morons believe the scales are titled against you rather than exactly the opposite going on. In the film, Andy needs a job and thus snaps at the offer made by Runway magazine … which doesn’t really make sense. Andy is an award-winning investigative journalist. Runway doesn’t need her and can’t afford her.
The question here is: “How does Runway have any money?” Publications are all downsizing. Their business is all online now – but there’s no money in that, or not like magazine subscription money. Nobody in the business is taking on more these days.
The Miranda problem is “solved” by Miranda being a serious jerk. Not the Devil so much, as a thoughtless overlord with the memory of a goldfish. She has completely forgotten Andy. Wow. That really seems suspect, but, shrug, whatchagonnado? WE KNOW what they shared together. The real problem I have here is that since we the audience have softened on Miranda, the film needed to make her vulnerable so that we would root for both women. To do this, we imagine Miranda as LESS powerful than she was twenty years ago. Cuz that’s how it works, right? Miranda, who climbed the fashion ladder by being a stone-cold killer, has somehow lost power between then and now. And while she’s angling for a promotion, the fact that there’s even somebody above her seems like news to us.
How can Andy save her career while enhancing Miranda’s in a dying medium? The answer is: imagination, and a fair amount of suspension-of-disbelief. However, if you liked the original, you will probably like this one as well. The key, once again, is Stanley Tucci as the amiable liaison between the two women. He must encourage Andy while toadying to Miranda at all times.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 hits me wrong the same way Cars hit me wrong: You’re trying to make me sympathetic for a past that can no longer exist … and you guys are exactly the reason it longer exists. In Cars, We’re supposed to feel for the lack of traffic on Route 66. OK, but Route 66 only existed because of the invention of the automobile and the requirements it demanded. The automobile evolved. Roads evolved. Route 66 is no longer a thing. Hard to feel sorry for those who jumped on the fad but never evolved from it themselves. Similarly, printed media is dying. Fashion is a brand of capitalist elitism; this elitism promoted fashion magazines because snotty zillionaires decided their tastes were better than ours. OK, fine. And then zillionaires made print a thing of the past. Heck, this blog is an example. And the fact that I haven’t evolved to a video format is the main reason why I have no followers. I get it. Evolve or die. But don’t expect me to mourn when you did it to yourselves.
There’s a point in the film in which Runway has to downsize, and Miranda has to experience things normal people experience, like flying coach, taking Ubers, and *gasp* using the cafeteria. I mean, there’s a serious set
of jokes in this film that revolve around the fact that Miranda has never been to the cafeteria in her own building. On some level, it’s funny. Ha ha. Miranda is so out-of-touch with commoners that she doesn’t even know how to get food in her own workplace. OTOH, this isn’t funny at all. Are we supposed to root for somebody who is so elitist she doesn’t even know the bare bones of human existence and interaction? How is that funny? And look at it in context – Miranda’s icy, orge-ish personality dictates fashion -itself a highly elitist marketplace- but fashion is something that, as the first film taught us, applies to us all, does it not? That cerulean belt from the original Prada is a symbol for how fashion filters from the runways of Milan down to TJ Maxx. The fact that those who set fashion standards have no understanding of the commonplace is a huge turn-off. Your industry is dying? Good riddance.
This film had some moments but clearly rubbed me the wrong way. Andy becomes an advocate for a woman who doesn’t need it for a publication destined to be penniless before the decade ends. The better move was for both of these women to find a way forward with a venue that people of 2026 will invest in. Online fashion zines are not the answer.
There once was a journalist, Andy
While receiving her due, she got canned-y
So, tail between legs
She returned to her dregs
And had to prove yet again she was handy
Rated PG-13, 119 Minutes
Director: David Frankel
Writer: Aline Brosh McKenna, Lauren Weisberger
Genre: Unnecessary sequels
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: If you loved the first, you’ll probably love this
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Me
