Sanaa Hamri's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 works utterly as a soap opera squeezed into a feature-length package and dispensed to its (rather female) adolescent demographic. The four "sisters," now college-aged but still trading their magical down in the mouth jeans, reunify with disoriented relatives, endure pregnancy scares, chase their dreams to exotic locales, and receive crucial, worked up elements of themselves in the strangest of places. Like Vermont, for instance.
That doesn't mean, by whatever stretch, that this Sisterhood sequel offers a balanced moviegoing experience capable of entertaining the random ticket buyers wHO stumble in because The Dark Knight is sold out and don't recognize the difference between weakened Levi's and the traveling pants of the title. Knowledge gleaned from the 2005 film is imperative, while familiarity with the four books in author Ann Brashares' Sisterhood series will only help.
Pants 2 spends equal time with each girl. After a brief stint on an archaeologic dig, athletic Bridget (Blake Lively) books a trip to Alabama to observe the grandmother she never knew (Blythe Danner). Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) is the one world Health Organization thinks she might be having a baby with her loyal beau (Leonardo Nam). Lena's (Alexis Bledel) new human relationship with male person model Leo (Jesse Williams) helps her overcome feelings for Kostas (Michael Rady) -- until the Greek hunk comes back into her life. Seriously, this sounds like The Young and the Restless. At least Carmen (America Ferrera) has normal problems. She's acting in a Shakespearean play, and has fallen for her British co-star (Tom Wisdom, whose resemblance to a young Heath Ledger is uncanny).
Lively and Bledel are decent. Tamblyn and Ferrera are better. The workforce do what they canful in support, though this isn't their show and they know it. Pants 2 appeals to girls world Health Organization, like the characters, ar entering the final stages of teendom and are learning more about their potential futures as working professionals and independent women. Based on that description, if Pants 2 fits you, wear it with pride.
Skittles: Taste the rainbow.
More info
