Starring: Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, Blake Lively
Directed By: Sanaa Hamri
Written By: Elizabeth Chandler, Ann Brashares
Released: 2008
Grade: B+
The film takes place about a year after the original film when the girls have all graduated high
school and gone on to prestigious colleges. They are all pretty far from each other now, but are doing what they love. Lena (Bledel) is in art school, Tibby (Tamblyn) is at film school making her own movies, Bridget (Lively) is playing college soccer and experiencing other things along the way, and Carmen (Ferrera) is spending most her time backstage of the theater production at school. Truth be told, Carmen is really the one who is having the hardest time adjusting to her new life away from her old friends. It seems like everyone else is on to bigger and better things and meeting new people.
Over break the old friends are reunited and they continue the tradition of the pants. As they go through the typical rules and outlines of how they transfer the jeans that magically fit all of them, giving each person one week to have the magic and closeness that the pants bring, it seems most of them are tired of the formalities. Carmen worries that the pants may not be as important to everyone as they once were, fearing that without them there might not be much to bring them together.
Carmen is expecting to spend the whole summer with her friends, sure that this is what they are all dying to do too. She is taken by surprise though when all of them have plans for the summer away from home. Bridget is part of an archeology program in Hungary and Lena and Tibby are both taking summer classes in New York. Since Carmen doesn’t want to be alone all summer, last minute she decides to do some behind the scenes work at a theater performing A Winter’s Tale that the star of all her school plays, Julia (Nichols), helps her get in to. She has no intentions of stirring things up, but the male lead cast in the play, Ian (Wisdom), pushes her. He encourages her to embrace her potential in acting.
Carmen is dealing with a lack of confidence in herself, making her fear striving for what she really wants. As her mother is pregnant and remarried now, she is also feeling like she is breaking apart from her own family. With her friends seeming more distant, she fears not having people in her life that really care about her. Bridget is having a great time discovering bones and learning about the life that was once inside of them. However, this triggers a gap in her life: the family that she has lost. She can’t get her mother out of her head and it haunts her. Confused about her true past, she goes to her grandmother who helps her understand the history that lies in their family as well as bringing Bridget an understanding of herself in the present.
Lena has recently found out that who she believed to be the love of her life is married to another (pregnant) woman. This really breaks her heart, but she feels like she could fall for Leo (Jesse Williams), the model and artist from her drawing class. He is sensitive, romantic, artistic, and someone who seems to be a great match for her. The problem is she realizes that they aren’t looking for the same things in each other. She just wants to stay numb rather than deal with her inevitable feelings for her ex who is in Greece. Meanwhile, she has problems with her younger sister, Effie (Lucy Hale), who seems to feel that she is far less important to her than her friends.
Tibby is in a great relationship with her boyfriend, Brian (Leonardo Nam), who is very caring and sees so much in her. A bump in their relationship makes this all come crashing down though. She automatically pushes Brian away yet she can’t bare to lose him. She distances herself from everybody. Tibby shows just how scared she is to get close to anyone through her fear of risking the chance that her love could end up breaking her.
The cast perfectly complimented the characters and what they were going through. All of the leading ladies did so well, it is really hard to even put one performance above the other. America Ferrera as the narrator did serve as a leading actress, even though the time was pretty evenly split between the 4 story lines. Ferrera captures an uneasy and worried young women who has the talent and self worth to have whatever she desires. She sets up this character and gradually transforms in to someone who radiates energy and learns that she has every right to go after what she wants. Blake Lively gave us a very fun and interesting character in Bridget too, embracing her life and every moment. We would expect that things would be completely fine with her character and her life. Yet, she reveals that there are often troubles and sadness behind a happy face. Lively brings out the hurt and desperation with the downfalls, fears, and extreme yearning to know and to be able to accept the truth that Bridget suffers with. Amber Tamblyn shows an edge and style as Tibby that you can’t help but admire. She is not the typical girl, recommending The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as her romantic pick. She portrays a very scared woman, but one who is even more afraid to admit it or let her guard down. Tamblyn exerts trust issues, which goes back to the first film when Tibby loses a very close friend of hers who died far too young. She doesn’t want to get close enough to someone where a loss would affect her in this way again. Alexis Bledel is lovely as Lena and shows hope and appreciation to those around her, yet is still very reluctant and shy at times making it hard for her to admit what she really wants.
Lucy Hale does well with the time she is given as Effie, Lena’s younger sister, who has felt that she is far less a priority to her sister than her friends are. We aren’t shown too much of her, but there is a small hint of a need to break out and prove herself to Lena. Jesse Williams did very well as Leo. He seemed like a great, artistic guy who was very caring and showed it with great gestures. Rachel Nichols did well as Julia, the benefited spoiled girl who often got just what she wanted. She ends up doing some questionable things in the end, but it doesn’t frame who she is the entire time. I really appreciated that although she is obviously not a friend like Lena, Tibby, or Bridget are to Carmen, she still wasn’t made out to be a complete antagonist. She just wasn’t used to taking a back seat on the stage or in her love life. Tom Wisdom was very important as Ian since he had the job of bringing out the life within Carmen. Wisdom worked very well aside Ferrera as they balanced out some very workable chemistry.
As you can probably see fear is a huge part of the issues that all of the girls are going through; fear of the past, fear of what you really are to your family, fear of going after what you desire, and fear of really loving those that you clearly already love the most. This is partially because it takes place at a time where a lot of things are changing and these things could determine the future. I recommend this most to anyone who has gone away to college or had their friends largely end up in different places. Personally, it really hit home with me. People go after their dreams and that is the thing that they should be most concentrated on when they have a lifetime of opportunities before them. It can still be hard watching yourself getting farther and farther apart from the people that you were once closest to. Even if people change, the youthful memories are still there as a reminder to what the experiences you may have had together meant. The film represents this hard time as young adults go through finding love and recognizing it as well as going after dreams and remaining true to your passions. Most importantly the film represents all aspects of your life; doing what you love, finding love, finding yourself, and still having friends that can be there for you along the way.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 gives us a great story. Even one of the girl’s stories alone would make an excellent movie. All of these are combined in to one and even given the additional story of their friendship falling apart at times when they all need each other the most. This makes it a coming of age story for all of them since they all learn and grow before our eyes. We are given characters that we truly care about and through the course of the movie we can really feel their pain and crave happiness for all of them. All of them have their own lives and ideas of what they want to do with it. They are all very unique in their own way. This is not done in drastically different ways of character types but rather done with a truth that makes us believe in them and making it realistic that these girls would all be friends sharing such an incredible bond. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is a sequel just as good as the first that has many stories intertwined with genuine characters that are sympathetic but also strong and admirable that deal with many themes and things that are relevant to young adults especially, but something everyone can relate to over the course of their lives.
Directed By: Sanaa Hamri
Written By: Elizabeth Chandler, Ann Brashares
Released: 2008
Grade: B+
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is a completely satisfying sequel to the original and continued in the following of the rest of the book series. It features the separate stories of four girls: Carmen, Lena, Tibby, and Bridget. They have all grown since the last time we saw them, but still have things that they are dealing with and trying to get past. The tone of the film stays very true to the first one, yet other things are discovered with the hurdles of love, friends, family, and the future.
The film takes place about a year after the original film when the girls have all graduated high
school and gone on to prestigious colleges. They are all pretty far from each other now, but are doing what they love. Lena (Bledel) is in art school, Tibby (Tamblyn) is at film school making her own movies, Bridget (Lively) is playing college soccer and experiencing other things along the way, and Carmen (Ferrera) is spending most her time backstage of the theater production at school. Truth be told, Carmen is really the one who is having the hardest time adjusting to her new life away from her old friends. It seems like everyone else is on to bigger and better things and meeting new people.Over break the old friends are reunited and they continue the tradition of the pants. As they go through the typical rules and outlines of how they transfer the jeans that magically fit all of them, giving each person one week to have the magic and closeness that the pants bring, it seems most of them are tired of the formalities. Carmen worries that the pants may not be as important to everyone as they once were, fearing that without them there might not be much to bring them together.
Carmen is expecting to spend the whole summer with her friends, sure that this is what they are all dying to do too. She is taken by surprise though when all of them have plans for the summer away from home. Bridget is part of an archeology program in Hungary and Lena and Tibby are both taking summer classes in New York. Since Carmen doesn’t want to be alone all summer, last minute she decides to do some behind the scenes work at a theater performing A Winter’s Tale that the star of all her school plays, Julia (Nichols), helps her get in to. She has no intentions of stirring things up, but the male lead cast in the play, Ian (Wisdom), pushes her. He encourages her to embrace her potential in acting.
Carmen is dealing with a lack of confidence in herself, making her fear striving for what she really wants. As her mother is pregnant and remarried now, she is also feeling like she is breaking apart from her own family. With her friends seeming more distant, she fears not having people in her life that really care about her. Bridget is having a great time discovering bones and learning about the life that was once inside of them. However, this triggers a gap in her life: the family that she has lost. She can’t get her mother out of her head and it haunts her. Confused about her true past, she goes to her grandmother who helps her understand the history that lies in their family as well as bringing Bridget an understanding of herself in the present.
Lena has recently found out that who she believed to be the love of her life is married to another (pregnant) woman. This really breaks her heart, but she feels like she could fall for Leo (Jesse Williams), the model and artist from her drawing class. He is sensitive, romantic, artistic, and someone who seems to be a great match for her. The problem is she realizes that they aren’t looking for the same things in each other. She just wants to stay numb rather than deal with her inevitable feelings for her ex who is in Greece. Meanwhile, she has problems with her younger sister, Effie (Lucy Hale), who seems to feel that she is far less important to her than her friends.
Tibby is in a great relationship with her boyfriend, Brian (Leonardo Nam), who is very caring and sees so much in her. A bump in their relationship makes this all come crashing down though. She automatically pushes Brian away yet she can’t bare to lose him. She distances herself from everybody. Tibby shows just how scared she is to get close to anyone through her fear of risking the chance that her love could end up breaking her.
The cast perfectly complimented the characters and what they were going through. All of the leading ladies did so well, it is really hard to even put one performance above the other. America Ferrera as the narrator did serve as a leading actress, even though the time was pretty evenly split between the 4 story lines. Ferrera captures an uneasy and worried young women who has the talent and self worth to have whatever she desires. She sets up this character and gradually transforms in to someone who radiates energy and learns that she has every right to go after what she wants. Blake Lively gave us a very fun and interesting character in Bridget too, embracing her life and every moment. We would expect that things would be completely fine with her character and her life. Yet, she reveals that there are often troubles and sadness behind a happy face. Lively brings out the hurt and desperation with the downfalls, fears, and extreme yearning to know and to be able to accept the truth that Bridget suffers with. Amber Tamblyn shows an edge and style as Tibby that you can’t help but admire. She is not the typical girl, recommending The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as her romantic pick. She portrays a very scared woman, but one who is even more afraid to admit it or let her guard down. Tamblyn exerts trust issues, which goes back to the first film when Tibby loses a very close friend of hers who died far too young. She doesn’t want to get close enough to someone where a loss would affect her in this way again. Alexis Bledel is lovely as Lena and shows hope and appreciation to those around her, yet is still very reluctant and shy at times making it hard for her to admit what she really wants.
Lucy Hale does well with the time she is given as Effie, Lena’s younger sister, who has felt that she is far less a priority to her sister than her friends are. We aren’t shown too much of her, but there is a small hint of a need to break out and prove herself to Lena. Jesse Williams did very well as Leo. He seemed like a great, artistic guy who was very caring and showed it with great gestures. Rachel Nichols did well as Julia, the benefited spoiled girl who often got just what she wanted. She ends up doing some questionable things in the end, but it doesn’t frame who she is the entire time. I really appreciated that although she is obviously not a friend like Lena, Tibby, or Bridget are to Carmen, she still wasn’t made out to be a complete antagonist. She just wasn’t used to taking a back seat on the stage or in her love life. Tom Wisdom was very important as Ian since he had the job of bringing out the life within Carmen. Wisdom worked very well aside Ferrera as they balanced out some very workable chemistry.
As you can probably see fear is a huge part of the issues that all of the girls are going through; fear of the past, fear of what you really are to your family, fear of going after what you desire, and fear of really loving those that you clearly already love the most. This is partially because it takes place at a time where a lot of things are changing and these things could determine the future. I recommend this most to anyone who has gone away to college or had their friends largely end up in different places. Personally, it really hit home with me. People go after their dreams and that is the thing that they should be most concentrated on when they have a lifetime of opportunities before them. It can still be hard watching yourself getting farther and farther apart from the people that you were once closest to. Even if people change, the youthful memories are still there as a reminder to what the experiences you may have had together meant. The film represents this hard time as young adults go through finding love and recognizing it as well as going after dreams and remaining true to your passions. Most importantly the film represents all aspects of your life; doing what you love, finding love, finding yourself, and still having friends that can be there for you along the way.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 gives us a great story. Even one of the girl’s stories alone would make an excellent movie. All of these are combined in to one and even given the additional story of their friendship falling apart at times when they all need each other the most. This makes it a coming of age story for all of them since they all learn and grow before our eyes. We are given characters that we truly care about and through the course of the movie we can really feel their pain and crave happiness for all of them. All of them have their own lives and ideas of what they want to do with it. They are all very unique in their own way. This is not done in drastically different ways of character types but rather done with a truth that makes us believe in them and making it realistic that these girls would all be friends sharing such an incredible bond. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is a sequel just as good as the first that has many stories intertwined with genuine characters that are sympathetic but also strong and admirable that deal with many themes and things that are relevant to young adults especially, but something everyone can relate to over the course of their lives.
Hell, I need to see the first one still.
Excellent review!!