On the big screen: empty 'Sex'

By Mary Carey
Staff Writer

Published on June 06, 2008

The audience at Cinemark in Hadley Friday night started clapping as soon as the opening notes of the "Sex and the City" theme song sounded. But the song, so beloved by many, quickly changed gears into something louder, less whimsical and unfamiliar - a sign, unfortunately, of what was to come.

The fabulous foursome is back. The acting is as good as always and there are many lovely things to look at, but the story is too flimsy to support it all. The result, sadly, is a garish and bloated, ultimately unsuccessful effort to translate the magic of the 1998-2004 HBO series to the big screen. Sigh.

Like their fascination with fashion, which seems to be more about labels than any more profound appreciation of style, the characters haven't evolved. They're definitely older, although all four actresses still look great for their ages. They're richer for sure, which is a little problematic, as only Miranda seems to work - or at least she's the only one who talks about having a job. They still get together to eat, drink and talk. It's just that they don't have any meaningful concerns or challenges in their lives, so the movie has to trump up an unlikely one involving Carrie's wedding.

What a pity. Women were viewing the movie as a cultural milestone, as the large crowds of women who have turned out to see it so far, often in groups, sometimes dressed to the nines, attest.

The last time "Se"x addicts saw Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha, all four gals had finally met some version of Mr. Right, and, having learned a lot from the travails and triumphs of their 30s, were looking to their 40s with aplomb.

Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), based on the sex columnist Candace Bushnell, was back with Mr. Big (Chris Noth), the on-again, off-again lover who most of us recognized as the one for Carrie. The demure, romantic Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and husband Harry were adopting a Chinese baby. Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) a prickly lawyer who was Carrie's closest confidant, had settled down with her underachieving but emotionally together bartender boyfriend and had a child. And Samantha (Kim Cattrall), who loved sex so much, had survived breast cancer with the loving support of her hunky, much-younger boyfriend, Smith (Jason Lewis).

Now, as Carrie quickly explains at the beginning of the movie, she and Big are still happy together and she's got a few successful books under her belt. Charlotte and Miranda are pretty much the same and Samantha and Smith are living in L.A. or as she puts it, "Lost" Angeles.

The crisis involving Carrie's wedding to Big throws them back into a situation where they have to use their wits and be there for Carrie, but as it's a poorly manufactured kerfuffle, nothing that has any emotional depth. Stripped of meaningful situations to respond to, the women seem more shallow than they did in the TV show, brittle even. They're like parodies of themselves. Carrie's wedding outfit, for example, isn't just over-the-top Carrie. She's got a bright blue-green bird attached to one side of her head for goodness sake. It looks ridiculous, as even she concedes later.

Having written a couple of successful books, Carrie looks to be resting on her laurels. Some of the most memorable scenes from the TV show were of her sitting in her modest apartment laboring over the column that the episode would explore. It would begin with a question and end with a modest lesson learned.

In the movie, Carrie reflects on a few things she's learned - that in their 30s women learn lessons, and in their 40s they buy the drinks - but there aren't many good questions. I have one, actually: Who do women in their 40s buy the drinks for?