Three years later the sisterhood still has problems growing up
Image Courtesy of IMPawards.com
Director: Sanaa Hamri
Notable Cast: America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel, Amber Tamblyn, and Blake Lively
What a difference three years can make. Amber Tamblyn is far removed from speaking with God; Alexis Bledel isn’t a Gilmore anymore; Blake Lively is a girl who likes to “gossip”; and America Ferrera is proving that not all Bettys are “ugly.”
The four of them were their own collective clique in 2005’s The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, based on the award-winning bestseller from Ann Brashares. And outside of the film, the four are part of a new generation of talented young women looking to cement themselves in the Hollywood system, joining the likes of Amanda Seyfried (Mama Mia!), Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell (both in Forgetting Sarah Marshall).
Now, in 2008, the girls return to the silver screen to share those mysterious pants again.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, while far from an original title for a sequel, maintains the quality of the original. Again the four girls find themselves spending another summer apart. The first time the girls tried on the pants it was about that transition from youth to adulthood. The sequel expands on that idea, with the girls now going to different colleges in the northeast.
Tibby (Tamblyn) attends NYU film school. Getting an incomplete for an assignment, over the summer she has to write a romantic comedy for credit. While trying to find the right nuance of boy meets girl…boy gets girl in the end, her boyfriend, Brian (Leonardo Nam), surprises her for their 10-month anniversary. Together they share a moment in which the consequences are an all too real reality for many unsuspecting girls.
Lena (Bledel) is in Greece attending a funeral when she encounters Kostas (Michael Eady), who she dated previously. Kostas drops a bombshell on her, telling her he is now married. (Gee, as if attending a funeral wasn’t disheartening enough.) She returns home to attend summer classes at Rhode Island School of Design and gets an eyeful of a nude art model with 8-pack abs – who could be best described as a black Brian Austin Green (of 90210 fame).
Bridget (Lively), who is a student at Brown, returns home and discovers a box of unopened letters her grandmother had addressed to her. She is infuriated to no end at her father for hiding them, making her think her own grandmother didn’t love her. When she is away in Turkey for a summer archeology excavation, the combined effects of discovering ancient and reading the letters spur Bridget to return to the states and visit her grandmother.
Carmen (Ferrera) is part of a theater troupe at Yale. Only her work is behind the scenes as an assistant to the stars of the stage production. For the summer she is invited by one of those stars to go to Vermont to a theater camp. It is there that Carmen meets Ian (Tom Wisdom), one of the premiere actors at the camp. They start a dialogue and soon Ian is urging a reluctant Carmen to audition for the Shakespearian production put on by the camp.
Just like the first Sisterhood, the traveling pants is the plot device used to go between each girl’s story arc; the blue jeans are rotated via the help of FedEx and other postal means. With each passing of the pants, not once did I feel there wasn’t enough time given to the individual stories. And each story deals with subjects that don’t overlap with any of the others. Issues like intimacy and spurned love, reconnecting with loved ones and self-reliance.
The film, overall, seems to lean more towards Lena and Tibby’s characters. Not discounting the other two, but the issues facing them have more in common with girls entering adulthood. So I can see why there was an added emphasis on their stories.
For Sanaa Hamri, this is her second feature-length film. In 2006 her debut was Something New, which mixed up the traditional romantic-comedy formula – usually between men and women of the same race – this time with a successful black female and a hardworking white male. You get a little of that relationship with Lena and her art class beau.
Detractors of this sisterhood will point out its sappiness, or how it doesn’t delve further with some of the issues. But the subject matter is leaps and bounds above some of the PG-13 and R-rated comedies directed to those with disposable income (ahem, teenagers). The chemistry of the four girls alone warrants attention, because they have a natural rapport. Even their quirks are amusing; there’s no aire of flakiness or superficiality. Like Tibby with her relationship issues, recommending a young couple rent the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre for a good time. We laugh, but also see she’s just having a bad day. And to cause anyone else misery deserves a priceless smirk.
