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By pleasebelieveme, Tuesday, June 1, 2010, 8 commentsRead at your own risk - this post contains spoilers to Sex and the City 2.
If you know me, you know I was at the matinee of Sex and the City 2 last Thursday, eagerly awaiting the appearance of the fearsome foursome - Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York Goldenblatt, Miranda Brady Hobbes, and Samantha Jones - and their latest exploits. It's been a year since the ladies and I have caught up (yes, I'm the fifth, anonymous, mute, and invisible but flawlessly-shoed member) and a lot has changed.
Carrie has settled into married life with Mr. Big, and worries that the sparkle has gone out of their union. Miranda has a big, bad, mean new boss and longs for the quiet vicissitudes of domesticity and motherhood. Charlotte finds that her dreams of upper East side bliss are interrupted by a wailing toddler and a husband whose eyes may be lingering on the buxom nanny, and Samantha is fighting the aging process and following the yammering psychobabble of Suzanne Somers.
Wow.
What got me hooked on SATC in my early twenties was that even though I couldn't afford the Manolos, I could relate to the angst and uncertainty each character felt. Are we good enough? Pretty enough? Will someone choose us? Are we enough as single women? Is time running out? Who hasn't had a Mr. Big in her life? Who hasn't struggled to figure it all out? Who hasn't fought to find a footfall in sliding sand when it comes to a career or her love life? I think those are universal questions for women, whether they wear Jimmy Choos or Payless BOGOs.
Yet, while watching this recent foray into "Rich Women, Boring Choices" I was a bit disappointed. I realize it's only a movie, but this sequel's over- inflated, self-important, stereotypically shallow approach to gay weddings (come on, even Liberace would've found certain elements of that scene overdone), marriage, and family a bit sedate. These women confront their issues with afternoon recession-be-darned jaunts to Bergdorf's and the excess of Abu Dhabi.
If only working class women had those options.
Yes, Miranda and Charlotte toast to the women who do it all without help - but is it in barely shamed-face relief that they aren't part of those numbers? Samantha's randy behavior eventually gets them all kicked out of the Kasbah, but even then, the women aren't concerned with the utter lack of respect she has shown for another culture's restrictions; they are just appalled that they might have to fly home in coach. And Carrie - who was outraged to receive a second television as a second wedding anniversary present from Big - is perfectly fine with receiving a ginormous black diamond sparkler to remind her she is, after all, Sadie, Sadie, Married Lady.
Again, there were no major characters of color this time around: apparently the girls only come in contact with people who are black or brown when they are in positions of service. But maybe that's reality for people with a certain amount of personal wealth.
Sigh.
Part of the fun of watching the original show and even the first movie was that it was an indulgent, aspirational fantasy. None of the characters were really where she wanted to be in life, and they spent a great bit of time examining their privileged lives under a microscope. And this time around, we find what most adults already know: getting what you want isn't always everything the brochures and Facebook ads would have us believe. Flawlessly coiffed and coutured, these jet-setting women look inward and only as far as more opportunities to navel gaze will take them. All in all, I'm starting to think that like last season's Louboutins, I've outgrown Carrie. I'm disappointed to see that rather than our camaraderie becoming a treasured part of my closet coterie, I'll have to pass her on to some other lovelorn young woman who's in the midst of finding herself as a creative, still-searching, still-questioning romantic. Once a show that pushed the envelope regarding matters of taste and convention, Sex and the City 2 has now slid into pampered oblivion and proves the over-examined life is not worth watching. It's a shame that Michael Patrick King didn't envision more creative, less boring solutions to life in this modern world.
The truth is, real women are finding those solutions and rewriting the rules of attraction, engagement, convention, and style everyday.
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8 Comments
What a disappointment!
I keep hearing reviews just like yours, and I'm thinking I've outgrown Carrie too. Sadly.
I've heard this as
I've heard this as well. Still going to see it though. But will gladly weigh in once I've found time to go see it.
I saw it this weekend, and my
I saw it this weekend, and my friend and I agreed - I think to really "get" the movie you have to be or have been married and/or with kids. We both thought it was hilarious, and I liked it better than the first movie. The main thing was exploring relationships - does marriage mean changing who you are fundamentally, or do you marry because you have changed? Carrie realized she was no longer the single lady running around NYC and she was ultimately happy with that. Charlotte had a fear of admitting that her life she'd always dreamed of wasn't in reality a perfect, Martha Stewart-esque dream. Miranda had to learn how to balance her career self with her Mom self. Samantha is just Samantha ;)
Yes, some parts of the movie were a little forced. Several parts were unrealistic (the whole getting-kicked-out-of-hotel incident would not have happened at a resort with international guests, Carrie's passport most likely would NOT still be where she left it days earlier). But it was a fun, easy movie. A good closing door on a great series.
Huh...
It's interesting that you said you were initially hooked because you were able to identify with the girls despite being a BOGO girl in a Manolo world, but you're let down with the sequel's moral of the story- mundane doesn't have to be monotany.
The reason I loved this movie even more than the first was that it was so relatable. Okay, I'm not getting trips to Abu Dhabi with my own suite and car, but if I were, I'd be soaking up every minute of it sure that at some point someone would be pulling the (persian) rug out from under my feet. I loved seeing the girls have that rug snatched out despite being the kind of girls who get penthouse apartments on 5th Avenue, complete with custom closet.
I was impressed and surprised that Samantha didn't demur when she was busted for being, well, Samantha. I was sure that being threatened with "less than" conditions and being passportless in a land where her clothes alone are offensive would make her embrace the lack of desire "down under" created by her confiscated yams- if only temporarily.
The toast to those doing without felt, to me, like a nod to the fact that it is the millions of "have nots" who support the ongoing saga of the "have" girls.
In the typical SATC way, the girls were us but overdone for the sake of momentary escape of our everyday where a trip to the beach is the next best thing to an all expenses paid trip to the middle east.
I was far from disappointed. This movie felt more SATC relatable and thought provoking to me than the jilted Cabo trip after the dream library wedding first. I don't know if I've arrived, the girls have waited up, or if, for once, we're all finally on the same schedule.
Just a word to note.......................
Regarding your comment to pleasebelieveme, I didn't read anywhere in the comment made by her that she is or considers herself to be a "BOGO girl in a Manolo world". Maybe you should re-read the piece, maybe it was just an oversite on your part.
Thanks...
...for reading and providing some counter points, ladies.
As an escapist film, I supposed it delivered...but for me, SATC has always been about more than sheer escapism and fabulousity for its own sake...I saw myself in Carrie. On that level, this go 'round disappointed me. I found the movie to be self-congratulatory and a bit ridiculous, which is never how I saw the series or the first movie. It lost a bit of honesty and relevancy for me, and no matter how over the top the original series went, it had a way of relating on a genuine and deeply emotional and level. Not so much this time.
~AEB
Yes, maybe it's the mommies
Yes, maybe it's the mommies and working women that will love it more this time. Or the women with monotonous marriages. I wonder...
Loved it!!
I so disagree with your Review... I saw the movie, I got it, and I plan to see it again!
There were many twists & turns and underlying, hidden jokes (pay attention!) (Ron White as Miranda's boss.. Suzanne Somers!) in addition to the girls usual sarcastic and witty banter.
No characters of color in this movie? Nonsense!They were in Abu Dhabi ... everyone there is bronzed. Samantha's antics never disappoint including her not accepting the backwoods way the women in that country were (are) treated.
I love that Carrie's old love reappeared if only briefly for a moment ... testing Carrie's devotion to Big. And Charlotte realizing she is failing as a "Perfect" mother is just so real!!
The clothes and shoes in this new movie do not disappoint either! Two Thumbs on this Movie!
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