Let me start off by clarifying that I am a huge fan of the show Sex and the City. Of course, I am the movie’s target audience: single twenty-something female. I have the entire series in my DVD collection and even after four years since the show ended, I still watch the episodes with much pleasure and amusement. Needless to say, when Sex and the City: The Movie released in theatres, I was there opening weekend with the rest of the crowd.

For those who are unfamiliar with the show, the series is based on the best-selling work of author Candace Bushnell. The story follows four close female friends – Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte – and their adventures of love in New York City. The movie continues several years later where the show left off in 2004. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker from Failure to Launch [2006]) and Big’s relationship is progressing as they shop for a new apartment in Manhattan. Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Harry are happily married, raising an adopted Chinese girl. Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) struggles trying to balance work, marriage and raising a child in Brooklyn. Meanwhile, Samantha (Kim Cattrall) has settled in L.A. with Smith, to better manage his acting career, but she continues to fly back to New York frequently to meet up with the girls.

At first, everything seems perfect for the women, but then we realize not everyone’s love life is as perfect as it looks. Miranda and her husband Steve struggle to keep the spark alive in their marriage. And Samantha is beginning to resent Smith’s success as being the catalyst for her loss of independence. In the beginning of this re-introduction to the women, I was gladly immersed back into the story of Sex and the City.

I wanted to know more about what was going on with them. Will Big ever truly commit to Carrie? Are Miranda and Steve going to get a divorce? Unfortunately, after each girl is presented with a conflict, the entire middle act becomes a standstill. I felt like we spent an hour highlighting Carrie’s depression when her proposal to Big falls through. And Samantha spends more time lusting after her sexy next-door neighbor than she does for Smith. She is practically celibate the entire movie, which is very unlike Samantha’s character.

And then several scenes kept pulling me out of this nostalgic experience. The musical montages – the Vogue photo shoot and then Carrie’s closet fashion show – reminded me I was sitting in a theatre watching a major production chick flick. I don’t want to be made aware I’m watching this sort of movie especially when I dragged my boyfriend with me. It was apparent that writer/director Michael Patrick King was trying to cram everything he could into this one film, and his desperate need to please the fans overtook his need to please the critics.

Ultimately, my experience of the movie was not the same as my past experience with the show. The series presented a shock value every week by discussing a new crude topic based on the women’s sex lives. Is it better to “fake it” than to be alone? How do you know if you’re good in bed? Do we need drama to make a relationship work? These taboo topics of the week are completely abandoned so the movie can focus only on the progression of these realistic characters. And maybe that would have been fine if the humor hadn’t changed as well. The girls were so close in the series they could talk to and tease each other about anything. But in the movie when Samantha pokes fun at Miranda’s neglect to get a bikini wax, she flies off the handle and storms away in fury.

So the end result is a fun, but only minimally successful TV-to-movie creation. I would still purchase the DVD for Sex and the City: The Movie, but the entire experience was different from my experience with the show, which makes me miss the series even more.

Kristin’s Grade: C+
Director: Michael Patrick King
Screenwriter: Michael Patrick King
Based on: book by Candace Bushnell
Genre: Romance/Comedy
Running Time: 148 minutes
Rated: R (for strong sexual content, graphic nudity and language)

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