as i grow into this blog more and more (blogging is like tailoring clothes, i think; you keep tweaking it until it fits just right), i keep thinking of new features i’d like to add. one of them is movie reviews. i am no film critic (i’ll leave that to my fave reviewer, a.o. scott of the new york times), but i do enjoy film, despite the fact that i don’t see nearly as many movies as i’d like. so from time to time i’ll post reviews of movies that i’ve seen – the first being sex and the city: the movie.
after hemming and hawing about whether i should wait to see the movie with one of my girlfriends or just quench my desire to see it and go alone, i decided to do the latter. so, armed with a too-big coke and a bag of popcorn, i settled into my seat for the two-hour-and-25-minute film. here are my impressions.
my intial gut reaction was that i really enjoyed the movie. i had an emotional response to it, and while i didn’t cry (i’m not a big movie crier), i did feel my lower lip start to tremble a couple of times. i enjoyed seeing how the characters’ lives had developed since the end of the series and watching their various plotlines unfold was interesting to me. with the exception of charlotte, who seemed to get short shrift and who was the victim of a really bad joke, i was invested in their stories. in fact, samantha – who was my least favorite character on the show – was my second-favorite character in the movie. i really appreciated her evolution.
my second reaction was “hello, clothes, bags and shoes!” this movie is packed to the brim with costume changes and couture and product placements. i know that’s sex and the city’s thing – it made manolo blahnik a household name, after all – but as one reviewer said, louis vuitton could practically be credited as a cast member. i would be a total hypocrite if i said i didn’t enjoy it, though. pat field is pretty magical in the way she puts together outfits, and i thought the girls looked great throughout the entire movie.
{ spoiler warning! } the one issue i have with the film – and it’s a major one – is the way carrie’s and big’s (excuse me, john james preston’s) story was wrapped up. after the whole wedding scene (kudos to sarah jessica parker for some great acting there, by the way), i was surprised the film ended the way it did. additionally, one of the things i most enjoyed about sex and the city was that it put a positive spin on single womanhood. the message throughout most of the series was that being unmarried can be empowering, not scary and sad. so why end the movie with a marriage? why not keep carrie and big together, but end the movie after the middle of the scene in the closet? i don’t think it would have hurt the film’s integrity and it certainly wouldn’t mean that carrie loved big any less.
so there you have it: my take on sex and the city: the movie. i was going to post one sentence about a couple of my favorite scenes, but i’ll do that in the comments so i don’t spoil anything else for anyone. i’m most curious to hear what you thought about the movie. did you love it? hate it? did miranda and charlotte deserve more exposition? what did you think of jennifer hudson’s character? share!
Yay I could finally read that one and comment - also very glad I did not read that in the first place because I got to be surprised during the movie. Which I also really enjoyed. It was how you described it to me - like a really long episode. But you're right that Charlotte didn't get all the storyline she deserved, they just used her life as a contrast, which worked but wasn't quite fair. I liked how she was the one who got to tell big what she thought of him. I don't really like carrie and big. or maybe, I just don't like big. I'm not sure. that's the only reason i didn't like the end of the movie, because I was like, come on how much more is she going to take from this jerk. he says he loves her but really i just think he's a jerk. just my opinion. i can't help it that i looooved aidan. but it's true, aidan was the kind of guy i would like, and big isn't. but aparently he's carrie bradshaw's type. I think keeping samantha's character single at the end was enough. I didn't think it was a problem that carrie got married. Especially since they made a point to go into it being just about them and wanting to be together and not about a wedding. Anyways. that's all!
ReplyDelete