The Devil Wears Prada 2 (dir. David Frankel)

By: Adam Freed

Let’s face it, twenty years is a long time when it comes to the evolutionary cycle of fashion.  And when it comes to film sequels, a few decades might as well be an eternity.  This is the precarious position in which The Devil Wears Prada 2 finds itself, attempting to rekindle the magic that Director David Frankel mustered way back in 2006.  Frankel (Jerry & Marge Go Large, Marley & Me) along with writers Aline Brosh McKenna (27 Dresses, Cruella) and Lauren Weisberger return to craft a legacy sequel in superior form, an offering that outpaces the lazy predictability of simple fan service.  Instead, The Devil Wears Prada 2, unleashes a pent up desire very much akin to the impact of Top Gun: Maverick (2022).  Just think ateliers in lieu of aircraft carriers and haute couture rather than Harrier jets.   Frankel’s smile-inducing film basks in the nature of its fandom, while having the evolutionary vision to let its central characters grow and the trials of a modern world to matter.

Speaking of characters, few have been as universally beloved and made instantaneously infamous as Andy Sachs and Miranda Priestly.  The former, again captured by Anne Hathaway (Mother Mary, Les Miserables), was last seen as a twenty-something aspiring New York journalist with a newly formed respect for the world of high fashion.  Priestly, the irascible visionary behind the global fashion magazine Runway, is once again embodied with pointed precision by the unquestioned brilliance of Meryl Streep (Kramer vs. Kramer, Out of Africa).  Andy, now an award winning journalist, is thrust back into Miranda’s life and into the familiar role of the underdog outsider.  Much of what made Andy’s initial transition into the world of Runway sandpaper-smooth returns in good humor, but what becomes apparent quickly is Andy Sachs is no longer a bright-eyed aspirational young lady, she is now a woman in full, ambitious as ever but with a far greater sense of her place in the world.  It is a shame that more sequels don’t allow characters, particularly females, to evolve to the same extent as is the case for Andy Sachs.  Hathaway still imbues Sachs with admirable ambition, but there is an unmistakable armor present in her character that seems to have been earned with success and age, and that protective barrier wears as well on Hathaway as anything that Louis Vuitton or Givenchy could produce.  Equally welcome in their humorous and heartfelt returns are Emily (Emily Blunt), now working with Dior, and Nigel (Stanley Tucci), the well adorned purveyor of sage wisdom and sassy retorts.  While Blunt (A Quiet Place, Oppenheimer) is a pleasant callback, it is Tucci (Conclave, Spotlight) who is sure to invoke love at second sight.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 offers a narrative that is far broader in scope than its predecessor, a delightful surprise that leads to an unforeseen escalation of dramatic stakes in Act 3 that fits as naturally as a custom evening gown.  While there is a little shaggyness present with a few of the film’s new characters, most represent the same type of fresh, yet recognizable faces that Emily and Andy possessed two decades ago.  It is nearly impossible to imagine that anyone who has absorbed repeat viewings of The Devil Wears Prada (2006) will have anything but room in their couture-loving hearts for the warm and bustling sequel David Frankel has helmed.  Like mom jeans and oversized flannel, twenty years seems like the perfect amount of time to allow The Devil Wear Prada to come back into glorious fashion.

Target Score 8/10 - Not all reunions are created equally.  Thankfully in the case of The Devil Wears Prada 2, David Frankel’s long simmering legacy sequel, all of the globe-trotting joy and fashion industry intrigue fits as nicely now as it did decades ago.