*See last week for deets, I’m not typing all that out again*

A far less busy venue and a perfectly timed nap this week meant I actually watched some of the film, hooray! It is right and fitting that it should (potentially) all end where it began, at our home venue, with a baby dance party in the aisle to the closing credits.

*The gang’s back together! Though I did struggle to understand throughout why Andi was hired as Features Editor and used continuously as a PR manager. Surely Runway had a head of PR?*

On our second attempt, this proves to be the perfect baby cinema film. A simplistic plot, some beautiful outfits and watchable people (I’m a bit sad about what she’s done to her face but I still think Emily Blunt is perfection) and, crucially, no subtitles (you wouldn’t think this would need pointing out, but apparently it does.)

Anne Hathaway is once again working at Runway (there’s a whole backstory about the decline of journalism and the need to rehabilitate the magazine’s image but it’s only really there to get things moving), this time as Features Editor. She is once again in need of constant praise and feedback, a quirk which was understandable in a 20 something graduate in their first job, but which is extremely obnoxious in a 40 something apparently well established journalist. Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly is once again in fear of her job, prompting another montage of behind the scenes schemings to keep her installed in her proper place (apparently it would be sinful for anyone else to edit that magazine.) Stanley Tucci is once again underused.

The main failing here is the script, which is one of those corporate overworked ‘the entire audience is stupid’ scripts that you just know started out much better than it ended. The kind where something happens, and the next scene is two people in a bar summarising what happened. Whilst this is obviously very annoying, it’s actually the perfect format for cinema a la almost toddler. We only got a 24 minute nap (yes I’m still timing them) but that’s just long enough for me to eat my carrot cake and take a few deep breaths. The rest of the time, she was delightedly barrelling about the aisle, and when Gaga’s song erupted she was absolutely jubilant.

*There are quite a few scenes where Anne Hathaway talks to This Man about the plot, and I have absolutely no idea who he was meant to be to her*

It’s basically a celebratory rehash of the original film, with a lot of added brand endorsements and slightly embarrassing cameos. For some reason Miranda Priestly is now married to Kenneth Brannagh, who for some reason is in a string quartet, which was a great opportunity for one of my favourite niche movie subgenres, ‘actor mimes playing the violin very badly’. (My predilection for Sherlock Holmes adaptations led me here.) Kenneth did not disappoint.

Anne Hathaway’s character continues to gaslight us all by referring to herself as fat, and also comes across as supremely irritating, writing precisely one article in her new job as Runway Features Editor before dancing awkwardly in front of Miranda’s office waiting for her effusive praise. She’s also very rude to her nice new boyfriend, but unlike the first film, this is an extremely unimportant side plot which never really develops.

As with DWP1, you come for Meryl Streep and you stay for Emily Blunt, and I enjoyed it immensely, whilst wishing that someone had stopped all the corporate meddling with that script. But I don’t have the time or the energy to dig any deeper than that.

The main thing really was the baby dance party during the credits, which is more evidence if evidence were needed that our time here is nearly done…

Good things: The end credits! Emily B! The carrot cake! All of it really - baby cinema, I will miss you so much.

Bad things: OK it doesn’t really matter, but I really don’t buy that a New York bloke has never ever heard of the concept of a facial peel, and I think a little gag where he hasn’t is a bit of a low blow these days. We don’t need to mock this stuff in a film where everyone has had extensive facial surgery.

Lily’s review: A full on rave in the aisle (no poos)

My review: Perfection. All ten months of it. Thank you, Everyman cinema, thank you Daniel.

Next week: ???

The Devil Wears Prada 2 (Two)

The Devil Wears Prada 2