Cynics be damned! I’ve just spent the glorious first of June in a packed Peckham Multiplex watching Sex and the City 2 and it was everything a girl could ask for.
It’s bombed in the States and critics this side of the Pond were poised with their poison pens long before the movie’s release. I read one review which, like all the others, slated the stars for their brainless, botoxed performances and a none-too-PC theme. Yes, the ‘girls’ started off looking a little pinched, but once my eyes adjusted to seeing them on the big screen again this glossy, good-humoured and supremely escapist world felt like the only place I wanted to be.
You cannot go to see a film like S&tC2 expecting it to explore some Bergmanesque neurological dilemma. Most of the audience will have been avid fans of the TV series and we want to catch up with four old ‘friends’; there are going to be moments of story fragmentation and loose ends but who cares?
To keep its fans happy S&tC2 has got to be sexy – the outfits; camp – the swan-fest of a wedding was the best I’ve seen in a long while; it’s got to feature a certain city (although critics would have you believe they take leave of the Big Apple in the first ten minutes – wrong!); it’s got to be smutty – and Samantha has the best lines (except on her face) that any woman would want to spout, or should that be Spirt? (Just wait ‘til the Danish architect, played by Max Ryan, makes his entrance!) It’s also got to feature its fair share of feminine fragility and friendship and it does.
It’s two years since the first film, which climaxed in Carrie’s marriage to Big, and the girls are all back in NYC: Carrie’s now Mrs Big, or rather Mrs Preston, Charlotte is a mother with fewer Martha Stewart moments than she would hope for, Miranda is multi-tasking as a mother and lawyer whose chauvinistic boss has helped her fall out of love with her job and Samantha is on a menopausal mission to turn back time.
The central theme of the movie focuses on Carrie’s marriage; she’s just written a book on the subject and she’s been asked to pen an article for Vogue to accompany its release (check out her dodgy grammar with the article’s title: “The Terrible Two’s”).
At the Liza Minnelli-led wedding Big and Carrie surprise guests by honestly admitting they have no plans to have kids; that it’s just the two of them, from which point Carrie looks hard at what this means. She’s hankering after the glamour of her old life whereas Big hankers for the comfort of his beautifully styled sofa, plasma screen and his missus.
Cue a politically dodgy, but sumptuous, trip to the Abu Dhabi, which gives Carrie the chance to assess her situation and which paves the way to reintroduce some hot, hot, hot men like Smith. Yowzer! It may not be PC but let the objectifying begin! I positively purred when he appeared, as did the entire audience… Remember furniture maker Aidan? Carrie bumps into him in the market and shares more than just reminiscences on their trip down memory lane.
So what are the downsides? Well, it doesn’t ingratiate itself to the Muslim world but take it with a smear of Samantha’s hormonal hummus and let it go. Carrie has more brattish moments than I remember in the series but they soon get ironed out; Miranda looks detached at the beginning but this is soon clarified and for the first time in twelve years I found myself identifying with her; I even shed a tear. It’s 15 minutes too long – they could dispense with some scenes in the Souk and we’d be none the wiser. Oh, and there’s not enough of Smith.
In my opinion Samantha steals the show giving all women under the age of 52 something to look forward to, even with the hot flushes!
The high fashion and style are thrilling; whoever said there was a recession? The movie will make you head straight to Boots to buy a vat of serum and lipgloss and to hell with it! Summer’s here – what you need is a bit of Sex and the City, too!
