Monday, June 13, 2005

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Yesterday I saw STP... and I'm still trying to put my finger on my reaction to the movie. It was not the sweet "gal pals" movie that I expected. It was both more and less than that. Each girl went through her problems of summer on her own... until she returned to their hometown. In the end, they again banded together to save one and help another.

But the parents were conveniently uninvolved a whole lot of the time. And I wanted to THROTTLE Brad Whitford's character. The invisible parents is a theme in teen-based movies, but that doesn't mean that movies have to continue this theme. When the character's daughter reached out to him, he chose not to respond at that moment. Instead the daughter's friends had to intercede to bring about a reconcilation. Bah!

So parts of it felt false.

There were lots of tears in the second half... and not much in the way of comedy (though I thought it was billed as a coming of age comedy). The girls had insights I felt way beyond their 16 year experience.

The scenery was STUNNING. Made me want to stay in Greece for a while. And maybe visit Baja, Mexico.

But there were major flaws in scenes... when an object wasn't "needed" in the scene anymore it was forgotten (a sketch box, a boat, a dog, that we noticed right away... surely more if we looked closely).

It might be a good movie for a "girl friend's pizza and movie" night; it MIGHT be a good place for a mother and daughter to begin a conversation. For me it was an afternoon in free Air Conditioning with a friend.

I'm not saying don't go see. But I think I am saying to only see if the matinee price is right and you have friends to share it with probably with lunch before. Part of a female-bonding experience. For the most part, it's a NETFLIX worthy film.

1 comment:

Karoda said...

My daughter and I read the book a few years ago and we both loved it. She wants to go see the movie but I'm afraid the movie will ruin it for me. Thats the way I was with Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood...loved loved loved the book to my surprise but that movie was dreadful and excruciatingly painful to sit through.