Okay, I will admit to getting swept up in the hype. All of the interviews, ads, and film buzz made me reminisce about the days of old when I would sit with my roommates and watch Sex and the City. I thought to myself, hey, wouldn’t it be great if I got a group of my lady friends together to bond over the movie and then have some delicious dessert from The Cheesecake Factory???Well, the cheesecake was good. I had chocolate raspberry truffle, thanks for asking! The movie – not so good. In true List Lady fashion, here is the rundown in list form:
1. What happened to the character traits that made these characters unique and so relatable? How can Samantha go the entire movie having sex with only one man? Why is Big nice? Why is Carrie a screaming, squealing little girl? Why do we have to know Big’s real name? Sigh…I think they lost sight of what made the show great – characters who have problems like us and act like us. Who hasn’t dated an asshole like Big? We all know, from our own experiences that these men do not change overnight. They don’t all of a sudden become the most loving, caring, perfect man. This is what fuels women’s myths of relationships and men. This is why we get pissed when our man doesn’t come groveling back to us and treat us like a princess. Instead, they may come back, but sooner or later they’ll return to their some old asshole ways. I guess Big sorta, kinda reverted, but only for 5 minutes or so. Love letters, really?
2. Product placement. Now, don’t think that I was naïve going into this. I knew the Sex and the City movie would be one huge commercial for shoes, fashion, and Apple. But, c’mon, did we really need a 5 minute fashion designer montage in the middle? At least in the show, it was less in your face. If anything, it was more of a way to separate the fashion gods from the clods. It wasn’t so much of, “Here are the ‘in’ things – make sure you know where to get them so you too can be cool.” The show had a much more natural way incorporating this consumer CRAP into the movie in such a way where you felt dumb because you didn’t necessarily know how to spell Manolo Blahnik (‘cuz the boxes weren’t always perfectly placed for the camera!).3. It was too contrived. In the series, things felt more natural. They would go out to lunch, and then they’d move on with their everyday lives. In the movie, it just jumped from meal to meal to reunion to meal to reunion to etc….give me a break!!! Ugh. It was so ridiculous. If they would have cut out some of the stupid, unnecessary conversations and screaming moments and added more substance, the movie would have been a lot more tolerable.
That’s just the big three. Overall, I felt it lacked the charm of the show. It was thrown together to give women what they think they want, but the writers forgot what really and truly worked the best. The filmmakers tried too hard to make sure that everyone had comparable screen time which made for a lot of unnecessary scenes. I thought that Carrie was really the flattest of the four; the one who was most different from her sassy, independent self from the series, and that was the most disappointing aspect of the movie.
GEP's Grade: C-
