{"id":558244,"date":"2026-04-30T06:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T06:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/558244\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T06:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T06:21:14","slug":"the-devil-wears-prada-2-review-meryl-streep-is-sublime-in-a-strong-sequel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/558244\/","title":{"rendered":"The Devil Wears Prada 2 review \u2014 Meryl Streep is sublime in a strong sequel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cJournalism still f***ing matters!\u201d That is the catchcry of the newshound Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway<\/a>) and the unofficial mantra of this belated sequel to the hit 2006 dramedyThe Devil Wears Prada. Back then, Andy was an undercover everywoman in a cerulean blue sweater who encountered high fashion and workplace tyranny in an adaptation of the bestselling roman \u00e0 clef by the former Vogue employee Lauren Weisberger.<\/p>\n

Andy\u2019s fish-out-of-water high jinks included pillorying fashionistas while humanising the world of, ahem, Runway magazine, including Runway\u2019s fearsome editor-in-chief, the Anna Wintour stand-in Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). By the film\u2019s feelgood finale Andy had nonetheless recognised that fashion, well, flipping matters.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Twenty years later things are less good. Andy\u2019s sweary rant occurs early, after she discovers that her respected Manhattan broadsheet, The Vanguard, has folded. She\u2019s an award-winning reporter and, like Peter Finch in Network, is mad as hell and not going to take it any more. And as for the commercial status of everyone\u2019s favourite swag mag? \u201cRunway stopped being a magazine<\/a> years ago!\u201d sighs the fashion director Nigel Kipling (Stanley Tucci) before bemoaning the bottom-line realities of fading sales and digital publishing.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s respect the film\u2019s creative team, notably the director, David Frankel, and the screenwriter, Aline Brosh McKenna, then, for attempting a gloomy thematic makeunder even as each frame is crammed with designer gloss, branded fashion parties and jaunty celebrity cameos (hello Lady Gaga and Rory McIlroy). The collapsing value of Runway in a film about the glamour of Runway, however, is a conundrum McKenna\u2019s script never fully resolves, preferring, perhaps wisely, to swerve into a warm and affectionate revamp of the original.<\/p>\n

\"MerylStreep with Stanley Tucci as NigelPA<\/p>\n

The jobless Andy is thus rehired by Runway and re-encounters the alpha boss, and franchise secret weapon, Miranda. It is difficult to overstate Streep\u2019s importance, and how deeply she inhabits a role that, for any other actress, would certainly be cartoonish \u2014 the outfits, the glasses and the whispered catchphrase \u201cthat\u2019s all\u201d.<\/p>\n

Instead, while Miranda patiently awaits promotion and coolly observes the corporate horse trading behind a possible Runway takeover, Streep guides the character to sublime places. She does physical comedy with a Jacques Tati-esque routine involving hanging up her own coat. She does mildly sozzled at a party in the Hamptons (cameos here including Jenna Bush and Tina Brown). And if Miranda\u2019s default setting remains soign\u00e9 swagger, she also reveals subterranean torrents through silent half-snarls and tiny broken grimaces.<\/p>\n

In one moving set piece in Milan\u2019s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a melancholic Miranda stands alone at night, uncharacteristically rejected and almost teary, outside the Louis Vuitton and Prada stores. She\u2019s like Cathy outside Thrushcross Grange in Wuthering Heights, sadly separated from, yet tantalisingly close to, her heart\u2019s desire. It helps too, of course, that Streep has a handy foil in Hathaway, who once again injects Andy with just the right hint of perky naivety to maintain her status as the clueless straight woman to her co-star\u2019s scheming diva.<\/p>\n

The rest of the film sees the welcome return of Emily Blunt\u2019s supercilious Emily Charlton, now a marketing maven who admits to foisting overpriced Dior handbags on Middle American women who cannot afford them (another brave feelbad jibe from McKenna). There are plenty of shenanigans about saving Runway from extinction, plus an indecent deluge of after-show montages \u2014 how many more Donatella Versace reaction shots do we need? And there\u2019s also a tentative romance for Andy with a charisma-free Aussie plank called Peter (Patrick Brammall), which adds nothing but a jolt of the ick.<\/p>\n

Still, all flaws are forgiven by the self-referential subplot that has Andy secretly planning, and pitching to publishers, a coal-face expos\u00e9 about her time at Runway. It\u2019s a savvy circular touch that brings Weisberger\u2019s book back into play and provides the drama with that most elusive of modern film accessories: satisfying closure.
\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606
12A, 119min
In cinemas from May 1<\/p>\n

Two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman<\/p>\n

Times+ members can enjoy two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman each Wednesday. Visit\u00a0thetimes.com\/timesplus<\/a>\u00a0to find out more.<\/p>\n

Which films have you enjoyed at the cinema recently? Let us know in the comments<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cJournalism still f***ing matters!\u201d That is the catchcry of the newshound Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) and the unofficial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-558244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}