‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ Review

‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’, thankfully and surprisingly, avoids the absolute worst of such nostalgia bait legacy sequels by telling a cohesive story that tackles topical, modern themes for an industry in decline, even if it lacks the zippiness and originality of its predecessor.

The film opens with Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) getting fired via text from her investigative journalism position while accepting an award. During her speech, she passionately advocates for the importance of quality journalism in the face of corporate greed and immediately goes viral.

At the same time, Runway, the fashion magazine run by Andy’s former employer, the caustic and intimidating Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), finds itself in its own quagmire after publishing a piece celebrating a fashion label that has been revealed to utilize sweat shops in its production. With Andy desperate for a new job and Runway equally desperate for some positive PR, the magazine’s ownership decides to hire Andy on as the new features editor without consulting Miranda. Thus Andy finds herself once again working in the now-diminished world of high fashion with Miranda, her compassionate second in command Nigel (Stanley Tucci), and a new executive at Dior, Emily (Emily Blunt) as they fight to keep their magazine relevant in the face of new media, tech oligarchs, and all of the other newfound threats of 2026.

Perhaps it says more about my own rock-bottom expectations for these kinds of legacy sequels, which are often a smattering of callbacks strung together with the barest commitment to storytelling, but I was pleasantly surprised with how contained and timely the narrative was. We returned to this world with high fashion and magazines as industries in decline, with the all powerful Miranda Priestly suffering from ever dwindling influence. Who cares what Runway has to say when TikTok will cycle through a dozen trends in one scrolling session? There are cruel layoffs from corporations that care less about people than making an extra buck and there are predatory billionaires looking to buy prestige rather than earn it.

Though it must be said, the attempts at story are not without flaws, including some uncomfortable class warfare commentary that tries to be a quippy takedown of gauche billionaires yet wants us to root for the glamorous, disdainful also rich Miranda. In one scene when Miranda is reduced to flying economy on her way to Italy, the filmmakers play up the comedic effect of having to be among the unwashed masses. The social messaging feels misguided when our hero is so casually dismissive of the working class. After all, the greatest injustice of the nouveau ultra-rich isn’t that they’re billionaires, it’s that they’re tasteless.

The greatest flaw of the film is the central tension inherent in this kind of sequel between the desire to tell an original, provocative story while also remaining faithful to the diehard audience’s expectations that are the entire reason for this film coming to be. So while the narrative is never bogged down by fan service, there are still callbacks galore, some of which are cute and some of which are obnoxious. Beyond throwaway lines though, the characters themselves feel frozen in time, no different, no wiser than they were twenty years ago. In the original ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, its main coterie of personalities all felt organic, original and distinct because the filmmakers were beholden to nothing and nobody but the story. But now there is a need to also stay loyal to an audience who feels like they know these people, they love these people as they were and expect them to be exactly the same. The story suffers for this impulse, even while the film nobly resists the worst version of this kind of storytelling by committee.

‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ is a breezy, inoffensive pleasure that, while it is a less refined mimicry of its original, still tells a surprisingly relevant story with a band of beloved characters all fighting to maintain their place in the world.

The Devil Wears Prada 2
Rated PG-13 for strong language and some suggestive references.
Running Time: 1 hour and 59 minutes

Director David Frankel
Writers Aline Brosh McKenna
Stars Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Justin Theroux, Kenneth Branagh, Stanley Tucci
Rating PG-13
Running Time 119 Minutes
Genres Comedy, Drama