Meryl Streep shows development potential as a tough fashion dominatrix: the former main characters in a completely different media world.
No wonder that the devil attaches so much importance to high-priced fashion – of course he wants to distract from his appearance and hide the horse’s foot. And so the sequel to “The Devil Wears Prada” was only a matter of time. A lot has changed in the fashion world, but one constant is still to be expected: Meryl Streep, as fashion magazine boss Miranda Priestly, still has hair on her teeth and fine fabrics on her body.
However, a harsher wind is blowing in their industry, because in the Internet age the print magazine can hardly finance itself. What’s more, it then turns out that Miranda’s former assistant Emily (Emily Blunt) has become her fiercest competitor. Luckily, the other ex-assistant Andrea “Andy” Sachs (Anne Hathaway) also appears again and becomes deputy editor at “Runway”.
Scene from “The Devil Wears Prada 2”
Unexpected teamwork
In the first part, they said goodbye to each other with a silent greeting across a busy New York street, and Miranda secretly couldn’t help but smile briefly. Meanwhile, she seems to have suffered total memory loss, or at least pretends not to remember Andy at all. It sounds like a logical progression that Andrea can now do what she longed for in the first film: work as a journalist for “Runway”. On the other hand, it seems as if everything has remained the same and instead of 20 years, a maximum of two months have passed, because of course her boss manages to expose her in a very short time. But the two women will soon realize that they depend on each other and so both ultimately benefit from the unexpected teamwork.
Scene from “The Devil Wears Prada 2”
Funny schemer and the man in the shadows
Blunt’s figure, on the other hand, has hardly changed: although she now works for a major fashion brand, she is still the career woman consumed by ambition whose self-assessment leaves something to be desired. She fires verbal barbs at her former colleague Andy, but at the same time she retains an almost touchingly funny side and you can’t really be mad at her, even when she’s trying to intrigue.
Still at Miranda’s side is the artistic director Nigel (Stanley Tucci), whose modesty seems to know no bounds, but actually all he has is endless patience – because his big moment has to come at some point. Maybe Miranda even realizes what a treasure she has in him; and could the unlikely event occur that she even voices this realization out loud? Who knows, as we all know, you should never give up hope.
Scene from “The Devil Wears Prada 2”
More from Miranda and Meryl
After all, the biggest surprise awaits us with Miranda Priestly: Suddenly she offers insights into her emotional life and is no longer the inaccessible and mysterious authority figure that we got to know her as in the first part. Back then, her perfectly styled surface only showed small cracks in exceptional cases and if the fashion dominatrix appeared more human, then only for a few seconds at most and never in public. This time everything is different, which is also due to the fact that her character is more of a focus and takes an active part in the events. (By the way, her current husband is played by Kenneth Branagh.) For Meryl Streep, of course, this means more work and more minutes of film and hardly anyone will object to that. Nevertheless, the former Miranda was an iconic figure precisely because of her aloofness, while she now acts almost on a par with Andy – and that does scratch her image a bit.
Scene from “The Devil Wears Prada 2”
Dea ex machina
We find ourselves in a working world of mass layoffs, where an entire editorial staff finds out about the dismissal via text message. Media companies are being bought up and merged, restructuring is on the agenda and, in particular, those who have been employed the longest have to fear for their jobs. This development does not stop at “Runway”.
What can be seen as criticism of the current developments in the media industry then dissolves all too easily into complacency because a dea ex machina is conjured up, and the feel-good ending is far too fairy-tale happy. The whole thing is topped off with a completely unnecessary guest appearance by Lady Gaga. So I just say: Go, go, but that really wouldn’t have been necessary.
3 ½ out of 5 fashion mistakes in movie sequels