Thursday, June 12, 2008

Sex and the City

I wasn't sure whether I'd like this film. The hype around it was so crazy, not to mention all the faux scandal about the cast fighting. And when the trailers and promo bits for a film, seem to be more about the clothes than the plot... Well, let's just say I worried.

Then my local paper's movie reviewer HATED it. It's the first time I've seen a review in that paper with zero stars. I assume normally movies they hate that much, simply don't get reviews. ZERO STARS.

So, I went in with some trepidation. And I really liked it.

Sure, I can see how a reviewer who wasn't a fan of the show and expected more of a traditional movie structure might have been put off. Instead of having a film-like structure, it was more like watching an entire season (a short season) of episodes back to back... But I think that's why it worked. I mean, to come up with a single storyline big enough for a movie, that involved all four of those characters, would have been super contrived. As it was, each of them got their own little story and they were woven together nicely. Sure, Carrie and Big was the main story, but that in itself wouldn't have been enough. And that story line ended where you thought it would, but took a very circuitous route to get there. All good.

But the main reason I have to give this film my thumbs up is it made me cry. A few times. Okay, maybe five or six. They did a really good job of "the moments". Even some of the smaller ones, like Samantha spoon-feeding Carrie yogurt. Yes. Made me cry. I guess it's because if you watched the TV show you know so much about those characters so some of the small gestures have a lot of deep meaning.

The success of this film (for me, anyway), got me thinking about something my friend Molly always says about the "big scenes", that the readers (audience) are expecting them so you have to deliver and deliver them well.

And this film did that in spades. I don't want to post any spoilers, but if you've seen the film... the scene with the town car and the limo passing on the street and the bouquet of flowers and Big and Charlotte and Carrie!!! WOW. You knew something was coming. You kind of thought it might possibly be one thing... but it wasn't. And they totally delivered on the emotion. I didn't think Kristen Davies had that kind of raw emotion in her. SJP was good, too. And the end of the Miranda/Steve story was well done, too. Could've been so corny. Wasn't. Not for me.

Anyway... This film gets my thumbs up. I love those characters, and their menfolk, and found it a perfectly entertaining evening.

Oh, and a tiny fun thing for writers... There's a scene... not much happening. Carrie's on the phone with someone... can't even remember whom... But she's in a book store and while she's talking, she's taking other books off a front table display and replacing them with her own. :-) Talk about your great accurate details for a character who's an author. LOL

3 comments:

M. said...

I got into this series late, liked it in the middle, and became gradually disenchanted towards the end (but still kept watching). I never liked Big (though IMHO he got the best line in the entire run) and i HATED it that they made my beloved Mikhail Barishnikov look bad. By the end, I cared more for the other 3 women more than the main character - so I'm ambivalent about seeing the movie. Feel a bit soothed that you liked it.

L.A. Mitchell said...

I saw it last night with my CPs and cried, too, not only at the emotional parts, but the funny parts!

I'm not sure why critics and writers have to be so stuffy sometimes in their reviews. If I can't think of a better way to spend an evening with my BFFs and this movie, then it scores huge in my book:)

Barrie said...

So, do you usually agree or disagree with the reviewer who gave Sex 0 stars? For a while, I followed the reviews of this online reviewer. We had totally opposite taste. If he hated a movie, I loved it. It worked really well. Until he stopped reviewing.

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