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REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP
Our rating: 4 out of 5 Because of: sensuality, thematic elements Rated:
Nothing is more important to a teenage girl than her best friends. Sometimes, we just have one special soul that we share things with, and sometimes, if we're fortunate, we have a small gathering of people that we trust with everything, from our fears and deepest desires to our silliest ambitions. It's called a "sisterhood," and it's what the four main characters of this story have in common.
Four more unique girls have never been seen. The free-minded Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) is an eccentric to the extreme. Her notion of dressing up is to put another blue streak in her hair and remove her nose ring. The quiet Lena (Alexis Bledel) refuses to show off her legs in public, and believes she has successfully closed off her emotions. Carmen (America Ferrera) wants nothing more than her daddy's approval, and blonde Bridget (Blake Lively) lives to make a good impression. The four "met" in their mother's shared lamas class when they were pregnant, were born all in the same week, attended the same school, and went to the same ballet academy... and are best friends.
Each girl will keep the jeans a week and pass them along to the next friend in the sisterhood. The jeans bear witness to many things, such as Lena falling for a handsome, charismatic Greek boy that her grandparents disapprove of, Carmen discovering that her father intends to marry again and her presence at the house is merely an afterthought, Bridget's attempts to socialize and romance her college-age soccer coach, and Tibby befriending a girl who fainted in the supermarket. It started out as your typical teen chick flick with the theme of friendship, but took a surprisingly poignant and emotional turn in the second half. It was then I realized the real messages were numerous and deep, issues about love and loss, friendship and strength. All of the girls learn something that summer. Bridget finds out that empty intimacy cannot solve your problems, as she attempts to grieve over her mother's recent suicide. Lena learns it's okay to be beautiful and spontaneous, and encourages her family to give up an old rivalry that keeps her and Kostas apart.
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SISTERHOOD
OF THE TRAVELING PANTS
For
the first time in their lives, they are about to spend the summer apart
from one another. Lena is being sent to Greece to visit her grandparents
and brush up on her pencil sketches. Bridget is off to soccer camp. Carmen
is spending several months with her dad, and Tibby is stuck in a lousy job
at the local supermarket, so she can make enough money to continue filming
her biographical piece about ordinary people in "boring" jobs.
On one final shopping spree before the big event, the girls stumble across
a magical pair of jeans that not only fit tiny Lena, and shapely Bridget,
but Tibby and plump Carmen as well. Deciding that the jeans must be fate,
the girls agree to share them over the summer, intending to embroider
their adventures onto the jeans at the conclusion of their trips.
Carmen
finally becomes honest with her father, and ultimately forgives him for
his numerous mistakes. Tibby has perhaps the hardest lesson to learn of
all, as she struggles with the realization that her "annoying"
little tag-along friend is dying of leukemia. There aren't a lot of
content issues, though some strong thematic elements are implied. Two of
the girls are briefly shown in their underwear as they pass around the
jeans in the dressing room. Bridget's clothes are often immodest, and it's
implied she sleeps with her coach, but she shows remorse in the letter she
sends to Lena, saying that it was not the way she wanted it to be.
Carmen's father is living with his fiancée and her two children. The
girls chosen for the roles were perfect, and it was enjoyable for me to
see so many talented, familiar faces in the cast. It became very emotional
in the last twenty minutes, before concluding on a happy note. Watch this
one with your girl friends.