Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves (Thanks, Annie Lennox)

I find that the characters in the Sisterhood of Traveling Pants series inspire definite feelings, and they don't always match up from book to movie. For example, my friend Amy is a fan of the Bridget storyline, but I don't think it does as much for my mother. I lose my patience easily with Carmen, yet she's many reviewers' favorite. As a result, more than usual, this review reflects MY opinion.

P.S. While I don't say it below, the best part of my viewing experience was watching this with my Jersey "sisters," Brooklyn Jen and the aforementioned Amy.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (seen Aug. 22; 10th movie watched in August)

Three years after the first Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie adapted the initial novel of the four-part series, Carmen, Tibby, Lena, Bridget, and that pair of magical jeans return to charm us. Alas, in truncating books two through four into one sequel, director Sanaa Hamri and screenwriter Elizabeth Chandler cut back and forth more than a videogame, and the friendships don't linger as sweetly as in 2005.

While teenagers naturally grow apart as they age, Bridget (Blake Lively) seems to be in a different movie altogether than Carmen (America Ferrera), Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) and Lena (Alexis Bledel). Where the other three tackle boy problems of varying degrees of triteness (although Carmen also has a parallel Shakespeare camp story), Bridget searches for identities old (Turkish archeological dig) and personal (Southern grandmother), giving the film a needed level of maturity.

Our girls reunite in Greece for the last 15 minutes of Pants 2, providing us with the satisfying conclusion we desire - but not the overall blissful experience we so want.

1 comment:

Marilyn said...

Lisa...You may recall that while Bridget's story was my least favorite in the book, it was the one that has the most emotional impact on me in the first movie. It's been a while since I read the books, and senioritis does cloud the memory. However, I do remember enjoying the Bridget and her grandmother storyline. I wonder if the general "love of Carmen" is more of a general love of America Ferrera.