After years of waiting, wishing and wanting just one more taste of the guilty pleasure that had filled our living rooms and more importantly, our bedrooms for so long...finally the Sex and the City Movie arrived! But walking out of the theater after watching it might make you feel like you saw a really gorgeous guy in a bar who walks straight up to you to ask you out and when he opens his mouth his voice sounds like he just inhaled helium. To say the least - you'll be disappointed.
Sex and the City, the HBO hit series, was must see TV because it introduced generations of women to a world they had never seen and could only hope to live. It aired during a time when the economy was good, there was no war and people didn't take themselves so seriously. Now, a decade later, the Sex and the City Movie delivers weepy laments instead of witty one-liners and showcases the impossibility of honest and enduring love rather than exploring the truths, trials and triumphs that sharing your life with another can bring.
Beyond the frivilous matters of fashion, food and fornication, the TV show presented darker subjects like cancer, adultery, STDs and divorce in a way that left viewers feeling that they had learned something while still getting a laugh. However the Sex and the City Movie leaves its audience feeling that later in life, after all the dating, break-ups, reunions and decisions there is no room for learning, no room for mistakes and no room for self acceptance. The choices that Samantha, Carrie and Miranda made seem to haunt them with misery and regret.
The plot line for Carrie seems inconsistent with the character that was so definitively portrayed for so many years. In the film, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) acts as if she has learned nothing from the years of trials and tribulations with Mr. Big. She makes decisions - like the intial choice for a simple wedding dress and later for a big wedding - that seem forced for the actress as well as her character.
The movie's writing put Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) back in her character circa 1996 - a no-nonsense, callous and limited being. Her reaction to her husband Steve's betrayal is a departure from the evolution of her character which, by the TV show's end, seemed less critical and more at ease. Then, she was no longer willing to give up life's joys in exchange for being right. Now, being back in her old ways seems to poison much of Nixon's chance at any serious acting, which is most notably seen in scenes were she is able to show emotion and not get twisted in dialogue.
More than a decade later all the women - with the exception of Charlotte - are less flexible, less pensive and downright masochistic when it comes to examining the choices they've made about life and men.
With Michael Patrick King as a writer and producer, the TV show had quips and exchanges that sent you rolling in laughter, now as director, he seems to have lost some of that whimsy. The Movie's mundane plots - like Samantha being bored as a publicist for her boyfriend, Smith Jared, in California - leave you with the feeling that things like compromise and sacrifice in a relationship have suddenly become "dated."
During the years the show was on the air Carrie Bradshaw's (Sarah Jessica Parker) musings on relationships, friendship and the challenges of the single life gave women across the world permission to make choices that were right for them. The groundbreaking HBO series showed refreshing ways for women to behave, think, be. Women in their 20s and 30s across the world felt empowered to take the time to explore their wants, needs, desires and to forgive and accept themselves for whoever they may be.
The TV show made quotidienne relationship issues, things no one ever talked about - like male impotence, morning breath, masturbation and urinating in front of your partner - things you were suddenly able to openly discuss. The television show was a sign of the times - it introduced the idea of drinking Cosmopolitians, wearing Manolos and getting a Brazilian Bikini Wax...things that have now become the norm for thousands of women. Now, even in a recession, luxury items like Louis Vuitton bags and exotic eats like Raw Food restaurants seem pedestrian.
Instead of spending money on a movie ticket, stay home and watch the re-runs on TBS! It'll leave you feeling a lot more inspired and hopeful, but more importantly, more enlightened and empowered.
