The Devil Wears Prada 2

Directed by David Frankel, The Devil Wears Prada 2 follows Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs as she once again finds herself working for Meryl Streep’s imperious Miranda Priestly. Filmmaker Frankel, armed with a script by Aline Brosh McKenna, delivers a progressively erratic sequel that fares best within its breezy, compulsively watchable first half, as the movie, which runs a palpably padded-out 119 minutes, kicks off with a thoroughly entertaining opening stretch that effectively reintroduces the series’ affable protagonists – with Hathaway and Streep’s winning work certainly echoed in the efforts of a top-notch supporting cast that includes Stanley Tucci, Kenneth Branagh, and Emily Blunt. It’s disappointing to note, then, that the picture eventually segues into an almost impossibly sluggish midsection rife with needless subplots and digressions (eg a long, virtually endless cameo appearance by Lady Gaga), and while the inclusion of a third-act heart to heart between Hathaway and Streep’s respective characters is admittedly quite compelling, The Devil Wears Prada 2 has, by that point, worn out its welcome to such a degree that the viewer has long-since checked out of the proceedings – which is a shame, really, given the above-average bent of the film’s 2006 predecessor.

** out of ****