When The Devil Wears Prada came out in 2006, I had just graduated from high school.
Looking back, the reason I never got around to seeing the film in the theater was a mixture of work (had to save up before college, obviously), still being under the spell of Roger Ebert (who did not like the original much), virtually no knowledge of fashion magazines, and other forgotten factors that led me to simply never seeing the films until…honestly, a few years ago.
My knowledge going in was basically that the film had to do with fashion, the stars of the film, and the acclaimed Streep performance. It wasn’t until the second rewatch a few weeks ago that I finally started to see what others liked so much about it.
I am sure there is more to the character of Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) beyond trying to maintain her kind spirit in the cutthroat world of fashion, but I’m still learning. The sequel starts off two decades later as we see Sachs at an awards banquet for the paper she works on. Just before winning an award, her whole table of co workers are told they are being let go. As chance would have it, her old employer, Runway magazine, is embroiled in a scandal, and the chairman, Irv (Tibor Feldman), hires Andy, unbeknownst to Miranda (Streep) or her long-time assistant Nigel (Stanley Tucci).
“Look what TJ Max sent in.”
Former co-worker Emily (Emily Blunt), now a senior executive at Dior, still maintains a mix of respect and disdain for Andy (“You kept those eyebrows”). The veterans from the first film (along with Tracie Thoms as Andy’s friend Lily), the characters still have the spice they carried in the first one (although there are not as many one-liners). We also get new additions, including a truly unrecognizable (and effective) Justin Theroux as Emily’s boyfriend Benji, Lucy Liu as Benji’s ex-wife, and Kenneth Branagh as Miranda’s new husband. This does not even take into account the number of cameos in the film, including that of a pop star I had zero expectation of showing up.
What surprised me the most was Miranda’s character. She was clearly callous to all around her in the first film, but she seems a bit more open this time around. It is clear she is in the twilight of her career, but I can’t help but think something might have happened to her in the last two decades that we, as the audience, are unaware of. I’m not faulting the film for this, I’m just pointing it out as interesting (she does at least show the acknowledgement to one key character we as the audience have been pining for).
Parents, the film does not have as much sexual content as the first (which was mild), but it is still a standard PG-13 film with occasional swearing (I can recall at least one F bomb).
As previously stated, I was rather late to seeing the original, so my emotional connection to the characters is shaky at best. Still, I would wager the sequel (helmed by the same director, David Frankel), while it does not reach the status of the original, still pays a solid tribute to the characters and their fans (“That’s an example of an easter egg, right?”, my mom asked me).
Now, a thought: I recently found out I would again be camp counseling this summer. What if I had my campers treating me like Miranda’s employees have to treat her?
Again, just a thought.
That’s all.
Overall:
Nothing else to say 