The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

By Kate Xian
August 5, 2008

Carmen, Bridget, Tibby and Lena return three years after the first installment in this buddy chick flick sequel based off the best selling teen series by the same name. Ann Brashares’ The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants three books, which have been condensed down into two movies, follow each girl on their respective summer plans.

Carmen, played by Ugly Betty’s America Ferrara, narrates and ties in those said magic pants throughout the film. Though the title indicates a sisterhood, one of the main plot threads (no pun intended) is about the dissipation of the group and the pants' weakinging hold on the girls. Carmen fights for the sisterhood, trying to keep the four together but the other girls are entirely blasé about the group falling apart.

So Lena (Alexis Bledel) is off to some art school (where we have no orientation whatsoever of where she is geographically); Bridget (Blake Lively) is in Turkey wreaking havoc in ancient archeological sites and then is off in search of her estranged Grandmother; Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) is in New York doing her best to be a “New Yorker” – cynical, sarcastic, deliberately off beat, quirky and smart-assed – but not quick enough to take a pregnancy test. So where does that leave Carmen? Definitely not off on her own. She is hiding away in Vermont in a Babysitters Club-ish farm/theatre school where she is destined to become a star.

This PG film that is G rated in today’s youth market is a strange relief of cheese. An odd statement, yes, but just after a half hour of watching TMZ.com and Showbiz Tonight, the nauseating doses of whether LiLo is playing the other field to Miley Cyrus’ latest boastful imitations of her rivals to the sexcapades and drugcapades of another underage celeb has become more than vomit inducing. What a strange irony that Sisterhood star Lively who is also a cast member of the racy teen drama Gossip Girl, its latest marketing campaign (also released concurrently with the film) of which is undergoing major scrutiny for its over-sexed billboards and print ads. Ads which feature Lively front and centre in the midst of a threesome. Parents beware as your impressionable teen daughters may see Bridget with eyes half closed, and mouth open in ecstasy on a giant billboard on the drive home from watching Sisterhood 2.

Though Sisterhood 2 treads lightly on more “mature” teen issues of interest such as teen pregnancy and suicide, it definitely deals with it with a light hand. Its overzealous BFF sentiment is much more forgiving after an episode of mindless fodder that is the tabloids. I could pick apart the disjointed storytelling and predictable outcomes. Not to mention leaps in logic (who goes to Greece in search of a pair of pants??) and time space continuums, and underdeveloped characters, i.e. Effie, the overall message, as corny and camp as it may be, is much needed in today’s youth culture. I’m barely over the teen age generation and yet already it seems like a lifetime ago, having grown up watching reruns of The Wonder Years and the goofy TGIF ABC short lived and entirely forgotten comedy Teen Angel, Sisterhood is reminiscent of what I know – innocence and more importantly, normalcy.

Looking past my rant on the deterioration of youth and my embarrassment to be so close in age to a culture obsessed with trying too hard – too hard to be sexy, slim, cool, hip, rebellious, mature, and used above all - Sisterhood is mildly entertaining but more importantly they’re four women with ambition that has nothing do with…fitting into a pair of jeans. Their ambitions aren’t about being the next Paris or starring in a sex tape but they are credible, creative ambitions.

With the oversaturation of sex, drugs and rehab groomed for the 18 under crowd, it makes being young not at all all that charming. Have we forgotten that the appeal of youth is its innocence?

Release Date: August 6, 2008
Running Time: 1 hour, 57 minutes
Director: Sanaa Hamri
Producers: Jody Shapiro, Phyllis Laing
Executive Producers: Alison Greenspan, Christine A. Sacani
Screenplay: Elizabeth Chandler
Director of Photography: Jim Denault
Editor: Melissa Kent