Better the Devil You Knew – The Devil Wears Prada 2
Movie reviews? For a blog? Groundbreaking.
Note: this piece contains spoilers and discussion of core plot points and themes.
Andy Sachs returns to Runway magazine to find it’s in dire straits as the position of magazines and journalism decline in the modern world. The magazine is being downsized, and Andy must find a way to save it. During a dinner scene the definitely-not-Elon-Musk-alike potential new owner presents the core theme of the movie clearly: if certain people get their way, in the near future there will be no place to celebrate and highlight the pinnacle of human artistic creation. We must fight for a world where thought and taste and human ingenuity triumph over a technology revolution that seeks to destroy what we love.
It’s a movie about how art and human creation have been commodified and reduced. How we need bastions of beauty and celebrations to the creativity of people and what they can achieve.
All a great message. I agree.
Which is why it’s so strange to look at The Devil Wears Prada 2 as the movie trying to make that statement.
It exists in a sea of sequels to old popular movies which don’t seem to understand why people liked the original. I was shocked to find out that Prada 2 has the same writers and director as the original. What on earth happened?
The first act is entirely void of dramatic tension. Andy loses her job and is immediately hired by Runway – a given for the sequel – and gets to work. At this point, Andy is an award-winning journalist at the top of her game, but somehow, she can’t take criticism, knows little about the metrics of online journalism and regresses to fawning and panic at the sight of Miranda. Andy as a character has grown, but only in ways that make her less interesting. (Props where they’re due, Andy is no longer with the terrible chef boyfriend and her date with Australian contractor guy is very cute.)
Miranda has entirely lost her teeth. The movie presents this as the effect of the new HR compliant world. Something only a person who has never worked in an office would concoct. Her floundering with this new reality is over played for laughs it rarely lands. I kept expecting there to be an illness reveal for the character, something that actually explained how she went from icon to disapproving boss. It turns out being told she’s not allowed to be mean was all it took. As if extremely wealthy and well-connected moguls ever stoop to the level of HR compliance.
The dialogue is at pains to clearly signal what is happening and what people need to pay attention to. Gone are the subplots and unspoken signals we try to work out alongside the characters. The tension builds at a glacial pace; to be fair, it does reflect a modern glacier: disappearing before our eyes.
There are many opportunities to create dramatic tension, but at every chance the movie not only misses the mark, but I can only believe it didn’t realise there was a mark to begin with.
Take, for instance, the trip to the Hamptons:
Andy is invited to a last-minute trip to the Hamptons with Miranda, in preparing for this, Nigel lends her an impressive expensive dress. While there she’s whisked in and introduced to many impressive people, before we settle on a dinner scene. Miranda is contemplative at one end and, noticing this, Andy accidentally drops some food on her dress. She jumps up and darts to the kitchen to try to save the fabric.
As an audience we have questions: Is this getaway a setup by Miranda? Is someone waiting in the wings to disrupt Andys/Runways world? Will ruining this dress have consequences for Andy’s relationship with Nigel?
No to all of the above. Andy cleans the dress and talks to Miranda who is happy and bubbly and complementary.
The original was about fashion, truly about fashion and the fashion world and how there’s so much going on that we don’t know. On first viewing we’re all Andy Sach scoffing at belt buckles and unaware of the impact of cerulean.
The sequel is about montages, referencing the original, and slagging off tech bros. Don’t get me wrong, Benji earnestly explaining how travelling to Mars is overdone and how he plans to explore the Sun instead was a great moment. Hilarious. It also shouldn’t be one of my highlights from a Devil Wears Prada movie.
For a fashion movie, the sequel lacks, well fashion.
There is a show in Milan that’s set up to be a pivotal moment for Runway. It highlights the history that the magazine has with the city, implies that the art of the Renaissance and the fashion of today are parallel achievements of human greatness. So I really have to question why most of the fashion show is about Lady Gagas performance. Why we see so little when it comes to models, photoshoots or fashion designers.
Instead of celebrating fashion and the creation of art, the movie celebrates the celebration.
Instead of looking at the fashion world or the journalism world, it looks at the world of the original movie.
For a movie arguing that human achievement and creation is paramount and should be celebrated, Prada 2 fails at every aspect that makes movies art. Frankly it barely passes the bar for entertaining.