Film review: "Traveling Pants 2" is by women for women
A non-threatening date movie for mothers and daughters, grandmothers and granddaughters and BFF’s who enjoy a group smile and cry, “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2” reunites the four young women of the earlier magical-britches opus for what narrator Carmen (America Ferrara) describes as another round of “stories, secrets, laughter (and) broken hearts.”
Phil Caruso / Warner Bros.
Alexis Bledel as Lena, Blake Lively as Bridget, America Ferrera as Carmen and Amber Tamblyn as Tibby in Alcon Entertainment’s drama “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2,” distributed by Warner Bros.
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Movie Critic John Beifuss reviews four new films, "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson," "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2," Pineapple Express" and "Brick Lane." Watch »
Rated PG-13 for mature material and sensuality
Length: 117 minutes
Released: August 6, 2008 NationwideScore: 2.0
Cast: Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, Blake Lively, Amber Tamblyn, Rachel Nichols
Director: Sanaa HamriProducer: Kira Davis
Writer: Elizabeth Chandler
Genre: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
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All that, plus enough culturally diverse and ethnically ambiguous potential-boyfriend hunks to provide dance backup for Madonna; a visit to the beautiful Greek island of Santorini (also a location in the season’s other squealfest, “Mamma Mia!”); the apparently mandatory sound of Cyndi Lauper singing “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”; and plugs for FedEx that begin less than one minute into the film’s running time. (The movie is the latest from FedEx founder Fred Smith’s Alcon Entertainment company.)
Like its 2005 predecessor, this sequel, which opens Wednesday, was designed by women, for women. The director is Sanaa Hamri (“Something New”). The script was written by Elizabeth Chandler, working from the popular series of novels by Ann Brashares. Seven of the 10 credited producers are female. Women also are responsible for the score, the editing, the production design and the costume design.
Did these women play it too safe? “Traveling Pants 2” is as harmless and predictable as an episode of “The Fact of Life” (although I don’t think one of Mrs. Garrett’s girls ever had a pregnancy scare). Earlier this summer, “Sex and the City” chronicled the adventures of a similarly devoted but older and much more experienced sisterhood; “Pants,” meanwhile, seems pitched at viewers for whom the first noun in the title of the Sarah Jessica Parker movie remains theoretical. (“Which of the ‘Sisterhood’ girls do you think has the prettiest feet?” a fan asks on a message board at the Internet Movie Database. Whatever that poster’s motives, most correspondents accepted the question at face value: “I think it might be Alexis, her feet are super cute,” is one innocent reply.)
Eventually, niceness proves to be the major charm of this visually bland production. “Traveling Pants 2” is a film without profanity, without coarseness, without violence — a movie that depicts college as a time for learning and growth rather than as a tuition-funded bacchanalia. Thus, Carmen is now a Yale student who discovers that she’s a natural actress when she joins a summer theater program in Vermont. Bridget (Blake Lively) is a Brown soccer player who takes off for an archeological dig in Turkey, where a wise mother figure (Shoreh Aghdashloo) helps her understand that sisters have been doing it for themselves for centuries. Lena (Alexis Bledel) is a Rhode Island School of Design art major who’s embarrassed when she learns the cute guy she’s crushing on is her drawing class’s nude life model. And unconventional Tibby (talented comic actress Amber Tamblyn) is at NYU, dealing with the emotional and perhaps physical consequences of what apparently was her first act of “love” (to use a term that matches the discretion of the director’s depiction of the event). Cynics may scoff and many others may snore, but I don’t think the art of cinema will be harmed if young women and those who love them find comfort in a movie that celebrates friendship and responsible behavior.
— John Beifuss, 529-2394
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