Movie Review

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (PG-13)

Kit Bowen

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Hollywood.com Says
You can basically expect more of the same as the Sisterhood passes those pants around again--except the jeans are getting a little worn out.

Story
BFF’s Tibby (Amber Tamblyn), Carmen (America Ferrara), Bridget (Blake Lively) and Lena (Alexis Bledel) have completed their first year of college--but they seem to be drifting apart even more so than ever. Carmen wants to spend the whole summer with her friends to catch up, but the other three all have separate plans: Tibby is staying at NYU for summer school; Bridget is going on an archeological dig, which inadvertently spurs her to go visit her estranged grandmother (yeah, got to take a leap there); and Lena is taking an art class. Feeling abandoned, Carmen takes an internship at a theater festival and ends up meeting a handsome actor and getting a lead role in the main stage production. The Sisterhood eventually realizes the error of their ways and how important their friendship is--with or without the pants--and we, as the audience, can all give a sigh of relief that it all works out.

Acting
When the first Sisterhood was released back in 2005, Tamblyn and Bledel were the most recognizable faces, both starring in TV shows (Tamblyn in Joan of Arcadia and Bledel in Gilmore Girls). Now with the sequel, it’s Ferrara and Lively who are the more successful ones, with Ferrara’s Ugly Betty and Lively’s megahit Gossip Girl. Funny how things work out. The girls still have a nice rapport, with Ferrara once again stands out as the feisty Carmen, who gets suckered into auditioning for Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale and then totally nails it. Tamblyn, too, does a nice job as the eccentric Tibby, dealing with some first love issues. Still, it seems the fresh quality these four had in the original seems a tad forced this time around. Supporting turns by Shohreh Aghdashloo, as Bridget’s archeological advisor, Blythe Danner as her grandmother are noteworthy.

Direction
The original Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants rode on the high of the bestselling book by Ann Brashares--and it was indeed a sweet, touching film about the bond between four girls on the cusp of womanhood. It also made the majority of the female audiences cry, which is always a good thing. Changing hands from TV director Ken Kwapis to Something New’s Sanaa Hamri, however, Sisterhood 2 unfortunately lacks some of the endearing qualities of the original. Rather than feeling like we are revisiting old friends and seeing how they’ve changed, the second installment is a little stale, as if the old pair of jeans they keep passing around to each other has worn out its welcome. Thankfully, there’s a solution to that particular dilemma in this sequel, if you know what I mean. Let’s just say, a third Traveling Pants is unlikely.

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