It has been almost five years since I've done a review on a Meryl Streep film. I'd forgotten that 2021's Don't Look Up had a limited theatrical release before it being streamed on Netflix. I had gone to the movie and drove home through a snowstorm. Oh the lengths I go. Last night was definitely less eventful weather-wise. And so, as I like to do for Meryl premieres, I joined my friend Scooter and his partner Joe for a screening of the much anticipated sequel to 2006's blockbuster movie, The Devil Wears Prada.
I get annoyed when people use the word "iconic" to describe every single thing that is remotely good or has been around for more than five years. But using the term for the original Prada is actually appropriate. The lines and looks from the movie have so cemented themselves into the cultural zeitgeist, that to this day, most movie-goers will know what you mean if you snootily whisper "that's all" or label anything blue as "cerulean." The film unexpectedly made a lot of money, earned Meryl and Oscar nomination, and opened a series of doors for her in her late fifties that led to one of the best decades of screen performances any actor has ever delivered.
With that comes enormous expectations for the quality of a sequel. Rumblings began shortly after the first movie about trying to recapture the magic. Streep and her co-stars have said in interviews during their global press tour recently that the timing and/or script had never felt right. Until now.
Twenty years after the original, The Devil Wears Prada 2 finds Miranda Priestly (Streep) still at the top of Runway magazine. But in an age where print media is drawing its last breath, the company's ad-drawing power isn't on the unshakable ground it used to be. Couple that with bad press related to running a piece that failed to vet a brand that uses sweatshop labor, and Miranda's grip on the company, and a big promotion she's seeking, hang in the balance.
I'm going to pause for a second to say that I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about the plot. For one thing, I find it tedious, and secondly, anyone reading this is likely not going to need a big recap. But suffice it to say that Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), recently fired from her job as a journalist, is hired at Runway as the features editor to improve the magazine's image with a series of well-written articles. Still desperate for ad dollars, Miranda and her right-hand man, Nigel (Stanley Tucci), seek advertising dollars from Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt) a former assistant at Runway who is now an executive at luxury brand, Dior.
Things improve for the magazine when Andy lands a "holy grail" interview with the super rich ex of a tech billionaire, only for Miranda to miss out on her seemingly in-the-bag promotion when her boss, Irv, dies at his own birthday party. Irv's son is a stereotypical bro who plans to gut the budget of Runway, so Andy and Emily concoct a plan for Emily's boyfriend (played by a hilarious Justin Theroux) to buy Runway and keep Miranda at the helm. Only problem is that Emily planned to fire Miranda after her boyfriend buys the magazine so that she can run it herself. Then Miranda and Andy hatch a plan which ends up in the aforementioned high-profile interviewee beating Emily and her boyfriend to the punch in not only buying Runway, but the entire publishing conglomerate that owns Runway, Elias-Clarke. Oh, and this "ex" who bought the company just happened to be the former wife of Emily's insufferable boyfriend. Miranda gets her big promotion, Andy stays on at Runway, she and Emily sort of become friends, and we learn that it was Nigel who got Andy the job as features editor at Runway in the first place.
Whew. My first reaction was just that I was happy to be seeing Meryl in a movie again, especially one that revisits such a special character. That has a downside too, however, as I, like I imagine many of us, have an idea in our minds of what Miranda and the rest of the cast should be like or stay like. Miranda 2.0 seemed a little lighter, a little hammier, a little more beat down than in the original. I have to remind myself that it would be dull if Meryl played her the exact same way she did twenty years ago. People live lives, they have experiences, they get older, they gain (some?) perspective. It was probably a tricky undertaking for the production for how to provide fans enough throwbacks to the original while still making it fresh. The good news is that in focusing the story essentially around the plight of journalists and journalism, the film felt fresh and like it had something worthwhile to say beyond bitchy one-liners and monologues about how fashion is more important than we might think.
The main cast was fantastic. They all felt honest to their original characters while still showcasing some level of change. All the celebrity cameos were small enough that it didn't become distracting or feel too gimmicky. The scenes were beautifully shot, particularly the sequences in Milan. I commented after the movie that the sequel was more fast-paced and included what felt like a lot more scenes than the original. This seemed to fit with the way we take in media these days, where many of us can barely focus more than a few seconds on anything before scrolling to the next page or simply tuning out.
My biggest takeaway from this film has pretty much already been shared in previous posts. I didn't want it to be a panned disaster. I'm not one who longs for sequels or repeats when it comes to Meryl's acting career. He recent work in Only Murders in the Building, and the upcoming possibilities of a third go-around for Mamma Mia! and Big Little Lies don't excite me. The very genesis of my enormous admiration and interest in Meryl and her work lies in the litany of varied characters she regularly and consistently portrays for us all. Not that she can't and doesn't do an exceptional job in advancing or developing characters she in any way repeats. And I'm of course thrilled that the box office total and favorable reviews for Prada 2 can only aid in getting things she'd be interested in involving herself in green-lit. But my thrill after a night out to see Meryl in a new movie is ever so slightly dulled by the fact that for the most part, I went in having a very good idea of exactly what I would be getting.
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