Released back in 2006, The Devil Wears Prada was a decently entertaining dramatic comedy with a serviceable message, top-notch performances, and enough visual flair to make for a fine experience. Based on the novel by Lauren Weisberger, inspired by her experience working as an assistant for Anna Wintour (the then editor-and-chief for Vogue magazine), it is a story of horrible bosses, the often unspoken price of ambition, and the importance of knowing what is actually valuable and beautiful in your life. It was also a fun showcase of what it must be like working in “high society” and the absurdities therein. Also, Stanley Tucci (I could watch that man read the phonebook on stage and be entertained!)
Now, a full blown twenty-years later, Hollywood has released a sequel, to which many of us have asked…why? It’s a rhetorical question, of course (we all know it’s only about the money and Hollywoods allergic reaction to anything not linked to a brand name or nostalgic property), but strictly speaking from a narrative perspective, there is no reason for this film to exist! Especially when it offers no real substantial growth for the characters, a story that only the wealthy elite would find engaging, and a visual presentation that somehow feels less glamorous than it probably should have been. Not to mention the poor attempts at commentary about fashion and artistic integrity that are severely undercut by the narratives priorities. At the very least, Stanley Tucci makes a triumphant return and renders the whole thing tolerable (again, phonebook!)
Taking place two decades after the events of the first movie, the story follows Andy (Anne Hathaway) being fired from her long time career as a journalist, due to corporate greed and a delusional perceived lack of necessity for her profession. Coincidentally, at the same time, the publication she used to work for, Runway Magazine, is dealing with a publicity problem; apparently they were unaware that their products were being made in sweatshops. In an effort to restore the magazines reputation and, apparently, save their stake in the fashion world, they hire back Andy as their new Features Editor to write up some pieces to save face. This, in turn, reunites Andy with her old boss, Miranda (Meryl Streep), who is still the editor-and-chief of the magazine, and is still the stuck-up, snobby, condescending (word that rhymes with ‘stitch’) that Andy had to put up with when she was starting out in the world. Will their reunion bring about some unexpected developments, or will there be some unresolved bitterness that will add to the conflict?
Aside from this kind of narrative only appealing to fashion magazine shareholders, there is a ripe opportunity to showcase and play with the twenty-year disconnect between Andy and Miranda. When they first “worked” together in the first film, Andy was a fresh graduate from college who was still trying to find her place in the world, putting up with a boss who embodied everything she disliked about the more prominent but ultimately toxic aspects of popular culture, but still managed to get a glimpse of the humanity within. It was both tragic and reaffirming for Andys convictions when she saw first hand how narcissistic and unappealing Miranda truly was; her efforts to appeal to Miranda’s humanity for friendship were met with apathetic betrayal, the kind that makes you understand and appreciate what really matters in the world.
With all that in mind, this sequel could have delivered a brand new dynamic, wherein Andy now has more power to both teach her old boss a lesson in humanity, and maybe, just maybe, force the beast out of its cave to better see the error of its ways, which, in all honesty, would have made for a compelling story, especially in this modern upsetting world. Instead, none of that potential character play or growth is ever utilized, and we wind up stuck with a massive repeat of the same character arcs and story beats from the first film. In short, more of the same, and nothing new!
Andy, as portrayed by Anne Hathaway, reverts back to the same shy and validation-seeking girl she was when she first worked at the magazine, despite the fact that she has enjoyed a twenty-year long career as a traveling journalist! Even if she still believed there was something good within Miranda, and had some amount of respect and understanding for her, Andy ought to have grown a bit of a backbone and would be expected to approach returning to the Lions den (as it were) with a completely different mind set. Instead, the film expects, nay, demands that we pretend the last twenty years either didn’t mean anything or didn’t actually happen, as if modern societies short attention spans weren’t pandered to enough already!
This might have been tolerable if the visuals were anything to write home about, but instead the film that’s all about glitz and glamor has a boring, washed out grey tone to the images that makes everything look (and feel) dull and lifeless. This has become a common complaint for modern cinematography, where the filmmakers try to retain as much usable information in the highlights and shadows, assuming that every single thing in the image must be visible at all times, resulting in images that have no sense of contrast or texture. This is why I no longer film anything in a LOG profile, and I desperately wish more filmmakers would do the same once in a while.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 is just another scrap from the things-that-were-once-popular-and-made-money pile that Hollywood has been scraping off the bottom of the barrel and throwing in our faces! No one asked for this, no one needed this, and everyone involved could be doing so many other things better than this! While the performances and parts of the writing make the film tolerable, there is nothing else here worth your time. Watch literally anything else!
Ladies & gentlemen, I am TheNorm; thank you for reading.
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