The Devil Wears Prada 2

Work and life got in the way of my amateur film critic career and I’m just getting to this now. The Devil Wears Prada 2 is an earnest piece of work that clearly reflects deep care from the people who crafted its world, but suffers from factors that are largely beyond its control.

The original film earned its classic status because not only did it capture the personal cost of prestige and glamor in the fashion world, it did so while sculpting these perennially iconic characters. 20 years later, so much has changed in the fashion industry and the world at large as should have driven these characters far apart. How do you address this and take care of the characters? You can’t. You have to choose.

And with the new massive budget and cultural sway, this sequel was bound to have the equally pervasive scope creep it did, ultimately leaving the characters with the short end of the stick. That’s why Andy Sachs still behaves like a secretary, why Emily moved on to a much better role and yet still has to be obsessed with Runway, why Nigel still waits for Miranda’s permission to claim spotlight, and why even Miranda herself had to soften and regress.

Still, the cast brought 20 years of growth themselves to the table and it showed up, however subtle, despite their characters being weakly written. Seeing Emily and Andy sharing carbs still brought a smile to my face. It made me think that maybe sometimes holding onto certain naive parts of yourself is just acceptable an outcome as growing out of it. I’d say this sequel is still worth watching for this reason alone. That, and the clothes.