Monday, October 25, 2010

Review: "Sex and the City: The Movie" is Groovy

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 86 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Sex and the City (2008)
Running time: 145 minutes (2 hours, 25 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity and language
DIRECTOR: Michael Patrick King
WRITER: Michael Patrick King (based upon the book by Candace Bushnell and the television series created by Darren Star)
PRODUCERS: Michael Patrick King, John Melfi, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Darren Star
CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Thomas (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Michael Berenbaum

COMEDY/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Chris Noth, Jennifer Hudson, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler, Jason Lewis, Mario Cantone, Candice Bergen, Lynn Cohen, Gilles Marini, Joseph Pupo, and Alexandra Fong and Parker Fong

Sex and the City was an American comedy television series that was originally broadcast on HBO over six seasons from 1998 to 2004. Created by Darren Star, the series was based in part on Candice Bushnell’s book of the same title.

Sex and the City the series focused on 30-something Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), a columnist for the fictional New York Star and book author, and her three best friends: 30-somethings Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and 40-something Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall). The girls often discussed their desires, sexual fantasies, love, and life. In 2008, the TV series made it to the big screen as Sex and the City: The Movie.

The movie’s story opens four years after the television series ended. Carrie and the on-again/off-again love of her life, John Preston A.K.A. Mr. Big (Chris Noth) are about to get married, but what began as a modest wedding has nearly quadrupled in sized. As her 50th birthday approaches, Samantha is living in Los Angeles with her boy toy actor boyfriend, Smith Jerrod (Jason Lewis). Samantha is also Smith’s manager, and she is starting to feel like a housewife, which she does not like.

Miranda and her husband, Steve Brady (David Eigenberg), have stopped having sex, and their marriage is in trouble, bigger trouble than she thinks. Charlotte and her husband, Harry Goldenblatt (Evan Handler), are also in for a big surprise regarding their marriage. 20 years after they first met in New York City, the girls are still supporting one another, and they need each other now more than ever.

I’ve only seen a few episodes of the Sex in the City series, and that was only in syndication when the episodes were edited for content. To date, I have liked what I’ve seen, although the series obviously isn’t aimed at me or my demographic group. The characters are what appeal to me. Each has personality traits which both attract and repel, but those characteristics are more substantive than quirky. Perhaps, I like them because I expected them to be vacuous, but instead found them engaging.

Carrie Bradshaw and friends are not shallow. While they are professional women living lives of affluence and abundance, those lives are not without conflict, drama, and dilemmas. The glamour is not without some gloom, and writer/director Michael Patrick King (a driving force behind the television series) freely goes to some dark places in the lives of the women.

Sex in the City is partly about love and all its complications – even the gritty complications that cause you hurt and make you want to punish the love of your life. Sex and the City, however, is really all about the girls. If you loved them in the series, you’ll love going through hell, healing wounds, and enjoying friends and family with them in this film. Sex and the City: The Movie is both effervescent and tart the way romantic comedy should be, and this movie is one of the best modern romantic comedies.

7 of 10
A-

Monday, October 25, 2010

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