by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: $13.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, Justin Theroux, Kenneth Branagh, Tibor Feldman, Patrick Brammall, Lucy Liu
Intro:
… it’s hard to shake the feeling of emptiness that this flick leaves you with …
Despite its somewhat reductive status as a “chick flick”, The Devil Wears Prada is a pretty great movie. Starring an astonishingly charismatic cadre of stars in the form of Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci, it’s a sharp, well observed look at the world of fashion and the relationships of people within it, many of them toxic and bizarre. The highlight, of course, is Streep’s quasi-villainous turn as Runway magazine editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly, a very obvious analogue for American Vogue editor Anna Wintour, who is vicious and capricious yet utterly compelling.
Set 20 years after the original, The Devil Wears Prada 2 reintroduces us to Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), who is now an earnest, hard working journalist, who manages to get an award for and is then fired by her media outlet, via text. Her impassioned speech about the importance of journalism catches the attention of Irv Ravitz (Tibor Feldman), the chairman of the Elias-Clark publishing company, the parent company of Runway magazine. Turns out that Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) has stepped into it by accidentally endorsing a fast fashion company that uses sweatshops in their production line and desperately needs good PR to turn it all around. So, two decades later, Andy is back at Runway, but despite the reassuring presence of fashion director Nigel Kipling (Stanley Tucci), things are very different at her old workplace. And Runway itself may be in danger.
The thing about The Devil Wears Prada 2 is that there’s no particular reason for its existence. Sure, the same could be said about most light entertainment, but the film genuinely seems to lack a mission statement, a reason for being. So, while it’s certainly welcome to see the core four back in action – and they’ve all aged spectacularly well, bless them – the plot of the film is somehow simplistic and convoluted at the same time, with no sense of an overarching theme hiding anywhere in sight. The first act starts promisingly enough with a lot of lip service paid to the notion that both journalism and physical media in general is on the way out, but that swiftly gets ignored about 45 minutes in and things become weightless and noisy, an endless parade of celebrity cameos, loud needle drops and endless montages of ludicrous and perversely expensive clobber.
Anne Hathaway is still great as Andy, although her almost stunning lack of cynicism despite 20 years as a journalist does make one wonder if her character suffered an untreated head wound at some point. Stanley Tucci remains a delight and although he doesn’t have a great deal to do this time around, his presence on screen is always welcome. Emily Blunt is great, but her character feels quite different for half of the movie, which probably won’t delight long term fans of the original. It is Meryl Streep, however, who is served the stinkiest dish here, as Miranda Priestly has been woefully defanged. In the original film, she was always sitting on the cusp of genuine malevolence, making you wonder what she’d do or say next. This time around, she seems a bit doddering and sad, a panther listlessly pacing its zoo cage and mumbling out the odd growl to amuse the tourists every now and then.
That’s not to say that the film’s a total slog. There’s some light fun to be had here, simply enjoying the delightful cast doing their thing with one another and fashion aficionados will probably enjoy all the frocks and shoes that cycle endlessly across the screen. However, it’s hard to shake the feeling of emptiness that this flick leaves you with, the sense that perhaps nostalgia for the original would be better served watching that 2006 flick with your like-minded friends while quaffing bubbling plonk.
Put it this way, 20 years after the original The Devil Wears Prada, people are still talking about it. The Devil Wears Prada 2, however, is likely to be forgotten within six months.
That’s all.
