DEVIL WEARS PRADA, THE 2
(director/writer: David Frankel; screenwriters: Aline Brosh, based on characters created by Lauren Weisberger; cinematographer: Florian Ballhaus; editor: Andrew Marcus; music: Theodore Shapiro; cast: Meryl Streep (Miranda Priestly), Anne Hathaway (Andy Sachs), Emily Blunt (Emily Charlton), Stanley Tucci (Nigel Kipling), Lucy Liu (Sasha Barnes), Patrick Brammall (Peter), B.J. Novak (techie boss), Simone Ashley (Amari), Justin Theroux (Benji Barnes), Kenneth Branagh (Stuart), Tracie Thoms (Lily), Tibor Feldman (Irv Ravitz); Runtime: 119; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Wendy Fineman; 20th Century Studios; 2026)
“It’s a feckless dramedy dressed-up in a fashionably worn-out story.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
David Frankel (“Collateral Beauty”/”Jerry and Marge Go Large”) directs and co-writes with Aline Brosh this glossy sequel to the 2006 Prada film (with the film bringing back from the original the director, co-writer and most of the original cast). The breezy dramedy revisits the changing world-wide fashion scene and goes on with its same story by updating it.
The idealistic Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) after winning a journalism award for investigative reporting is fired by receiving a text message with the rest of the staff of the New York Vanguard magazine (which then goes out of business). Andy is hired as a journalist for the prestigious Runway Magazine, a hip fashion ‘zine, modeled after Vogue, to counter the backlash caused by its imperious editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) over a sweat-shops scandal that’s scaring away advertisers. Andy reunites with her former boss Miranda (who barely remembers her) to be the features editor and clean things up to satisfy the publisher. Andy also hooks up again with her pal, the long-time art director, Miranda’s cunning but loyal second-in-command, Nigel Kipling (Stanley Tucci). Amari (Simone Ashley) is Miranda’s new assistant, trying her best to keep the boss from having outbursts (and therefore from being funny).
Andy has a dull romance with the wooden Aussie real-estate tycoon Peter (Patrick Brammall). While Miranda’s married to the lead classical violinist in a string quartet, Stuart (Kenneth Branagh).
The former assistant for Miranda, the climbing the ladder, Emily (Emily Blunt), becomes a big shot at the plush Dior fashion house and renews her rivalry with Andy. Emily has a sinister billionaire boyfriend, the techie mogul Benji Barnes (Justin Theroux), who just got out of a marriage to the grasping and now rich Sasha (Lucy Liu), and is trying to buy Runway for Emily to gift it to his lady to have as a toy.
It culminates in Andy going to a biggie Milan fashion show with Miranda and rescuing the day, as she saves the Runway magazine from corporate raiders.
It’s lightweight entertainment that dresses for one-liners, can’t wait to tell you that the reading habits are changing for the worse with so many newspapers folding.
It’s a feckless dramedy dressed-up in a fashionably worn-out story, failing to point any fingers at social media influencers for the poison they spread. It offers a few meaningless cameos by the likes of super-model Heidi Klum, the celeb Tina Brown, the self-promoting singer Lady Gaga, and, wouldn’t you know it, the N.Y. Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns. This splashy bauble lacks the original’s sharp acerbic humor and warmth, but who cares if it still stars the divine foursome of Streep, Hathaway, Blunt and Tucci!
REVIEWED ON 4/6/2026 GRADE: B-
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