Ann Brashares’ book series returns to the big screen in a romantic comedy about four girls carving their individual paths through their college years. Carmen, Bridget, Tibby, and Lena have been friends since childhood, and ever since finding a curious pair of jeans that just happened to fit all of them, they’ve been kept united by their pact—to wear them through their everyday activities, and then to ship them off to the next person in the rotation along with a note describing what benefit they brought them while worn.
The DVD release of the film also includes an incredibly thin selection of special features that should please fans of the series… until 12 minutes later, when they’re all over with, sadly. But let’s dive into the film itself first.
The Story of the Pants
In Traveling Pants 2, we find Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) writing a script, preoccupied with everything but her new job at the video store, much to her manager’s dismay. Matters are complicated further when she and her boyfriend, Brian, celebrate a tenth month anniversary that results in a tragic break-up.
Bridget (Blake Lively), too, is having her doubts about where she should be. Practicing archeology in Turkey is tough when you’re always worried about what’s going on at home… and with her mother having committed suicide years ago, the icy reception from her father solves little. Following a discovery in her parents’ basement, she decides on a whim to leave her summer work and visit with her grandmother, with whom she has had a falling-out of sorts throughout her junior high and high school years.
Meanwhile, Lena (Alexis Bledel) meets up with a former lover, Kostas (Michael Rady) at a funeral, only to find that he’s now married. As she readies herself in art class the next day, she is unexpectedly met with an opportunity for the ultimate unintentional rebound: the nude model from the class, who has apparently taken quite an interest in her. But things take a twist when Kostas approaches her again with an interesting story about his recent decisions.
And, then, of course, we’re back to Carmen (America Ferrera), who narrates this two-hour trip through the next stage of the four girls’ lives. Working as a stagehand supporting her actress acquaintance Julia, Carmen is brought to Vermont and forced into a Shakespeare play audition for the leading female role by Ian (Tom Wisdom), who happens to hold the other main part. Shortly thereafter, she’s flabbergasted to learn that she has been granted the part—even in lieu of Julia’s audition for that same part. Predictably, Julia grows progressively greener as Carmen looks to steal both her fame and her man, and Carmen must work to overcome her insecurity, in spite of numerous other personal concerns swirling around her throughout her rehearsals.
Throughout everything, the four friends share a common challenge: to remain as close as they’ve been historically in spite of the growing geographic distance between them and the complicated scripts their independent lives have proven to be. Can the Sisterhood of the Pants endure, or has its time as a childhood novelty passed?
All of the girls present compelling storylines, most of which are not too terribly complex; but together, they form a film that will surely please fans of the first. It’s nothing revolutionary or breathtaking by any means, but if you’re looking for a perfectly ordinary romantic comedy or you’re a fan of the book series, you’ll probably enjoy it. If you aren’t familiar with the storyline, you can still enjoy the sequel… but it’s harder to pick up on each character’s story. Either way, Sisterhood, dripping with estrogen, is an entertaining, if not fairly predictable and routine, tale of female friendships and the importance of hanging onto the things that truly matter in life, regardless of whatever else seems to get in the way.
Special Features
Special indeed. While the film is at least average and definitely stomachable, Sisterhood’s special features are among the most disappointing I’ve encountered from a recent, relatively high-profile release. You get a measly four deleted scenes (which are, for the most part, pretty ho-hum), a short, barely-amusing gag reel, and a brief featurette about the spontaneous development of the cliff-jumping scene at the end of the film (while in Greece, the girls apparently ran into a couple of guys who were jumping into the water from above, and so they pled for a scene at the end of the film where they did the same). And that’s it! Overall, it’s just around sixteen minutes of mediocre extras… too bad.
