Sex and the City: The Movie

Also saw Sex and the City movie today. I wasn't sure what to expect based on what I'd read about it. Figured that I would enjoy it okay, but it was actually much better than I was expecting! As the show has aged and turned into a movie I really think it is less about sex in the city and more about friends in the city. I'm not ashamed to admit that there were a couple moments while I was watching that I cried a little. But hey, I freely admit to liking girly movies anyhow. They make me happy. I can't handle horror, and most suspense movies drive me up a wall too. If I'm paying to escape the real world for a couple of hours I want to have a nice time, not be stressed out and ready to crawl under my chair!

Ran across a couple really interesting online articles about the movie too, beyond the usual reviews. Here they are:

From Newsweek was Sexism and the City: What's Up With the Vicious Bashing of This Movie?

From The Root came One of the Girls: BBF in the City. "As the black best friend. . . Jennifer Hudson plays a tired role."

And for all of Slate's highbrow criticisms of the movie, it still produced four separate pieces. There was Sex and the City: A Guilty Pleasure That's Truly Guilty reviewing the film; Sex and the Cash Register: Retailers Hope to Piggyback on the Movie, But it Won't Work talking about it as a potential cash cow; Fashion Roadkill: When Did Carrie Become a Label Whore? discussing the clothes and characters; and lastly (with spoilers) Spoiling Sex and the City: Four Women Argue About the Clothes, the Men, and the Ending, which seemed less of an argument than a complaint session about how the movie didn't live up to feminist principles.

Personally, I enjoyed the movie. No, it wasn't perfect and I could probably write an article picking apart its flaws too, but at the end of the day, it delivered what I was looking for from it. As interesting as Slate's articles were, I still felt like their perspective was a little too elitist and New Yorker-y for my liking. Not that they don't have some good points, but they seemed to be rather up in arms about it. Maybe because the women writing the article feel like they are smart, successful women and don't want to be compared to the characters on the show? I'm not really sure. But I'm also not a woman, so I'm sure that has something to do with it too.

(Update 6/5/08) There is also an interesting look at the film on the Bridezilla blog called Carrie "Bridezilla" Bradshaw: How the New Sex and the City Movie is Shattering the Glass Slipper. I have to admit that I was surprised that Carrie was so calm about not getting her way with the first proposal. In seasons 1-6 she probably would have thrown a shoe at him for not doing something uber romantic!