With millions of women flocking to theatres(and even a few men dragged along for good measure) to see Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha looking fabulous on the big screen, the big question is: can the Sex and the City movie live up to the legend of the TV series?
How Sex and the City Changed TV
Four years ago, with the finale of the legendary HBO television series, women everywhere mourned the loss of four of their best friends. Ten years ago, Carrie Bradshaw, Miranda Hobbes, Charlotte York and Samantha Jones made a grand entrance on progressive cable television network, HBO, questioning what it meant to be a single thirty-something woman, and pushing the borders of sex, dating, and (let's not forget) fashion.
Women's Best Friends: Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha
Not only were the gals from Sex and the City women savvy characters that modern women could relate to, they also grew larger than mere fictional characters, becoming loyal friends in whom almost every woman could see a part of herself.
Sex and the City Culture
Sex and the City quite literally changed popular culture; the show made fashion careers with the worldwide endorsement of designers such as of Manolo Blahnik; it made the Cosmopolitan the ladies drink; and perhaps most importantly, SATC (as the show is affectionately referred to by its fans) made being a sexual, professional woman who wanted it all okay, if not easy.
Does the Sex and the City Movie Meet Fans' Expectations?
The question was: could the creators the Sex and the City film - writer, director and producer Michael Patrick King, and producers Sarah Jessica Parker, John Melfi, and Darren Star – put together a story and movie that would honor the celebrated six years and 94 episodes of the show and satisfy to monumental expectations of fans? Based on the reactions of audiences of women (and those few men, too), the answer seems to be a resounding "yes."
A Happy Ending with a Twist
Four years after the four friends left us, arms-linked strutting down the streets of Manhattan wearing killer heels and fierce outfits, we get find out what happens after "happily ever after."
With "love" as the key theme of the movie, here's a spoil-friendly snapshot:
- Carrie and Big – whose name is revealed to be John James Preston – are happily in love and contemplating what the next level of their relationship is.
- Charlotte and Harry glow with love for their now three year-old adopted daughter Lily.
- Miranda and Steve are juggling family, work, intimacy and trust issues.
- And with regular commutes between her full time home in Los Angeles representing boyfriend Smith Jared, Samantha faces fifty with questions of who she was, who she has become, and who she will be.
Perhaps Carrie herself explains it best in the film:
"After years of living in the city I assumed that if my friends and I ever got our fairy tale ending that would be the end of the story. But real life-always has a twist."
Definitely not a conventional format for a feature film – what, with Carrie's narrating in keeping with the trademark style of the show – critics just might tear the film to shreds, but SATC devotees will love it. Admittedly, it's doubtful that non-fans of the television show would get much out of the movie's story or even be able to truly appreciate the characters themselves. It's like getting together for a two hour, forty minute reunion with four of your best girlfriends: plenty of girl talk and giddiness, a healthy dose of tears and sentimental moments, and lots of love.
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