Adequate “Sex and the City” Tops Box Office

The HBO series “Sex and the City” is an iconic program, especially so for women of the 1990s and after. The adventures of Carrie Bradshaw and her three friends every week ensured that the guys could get 45 minutes to do what they wanted while wives and girlfriends watched TV. The program ended in 2004, and the commercial potential for a movie was there from the beginning. This week-end it topped the box office at $55.7 million, but as a film in its own right, the movie was only adequate.

Except for the gender of the audiences, the film reminded one of the first “Star Trek” movie. The plot wasn’t much, merely an extended episode of what the fans knew previously. However, that wasn’t the point. Seeing the favorite characters doing familiar things creates a nostalgia (gee, four whole years ago) that can be mass marketed.

What did grab the attention of casual viewers of the program was just how much different life is at 40 than at 20. Younger women looking for Mr. Right, and the right career while downing Cosmopolitans at the latest restaurant or bar while comparing designer labels is amusing. Middle-aged women doing it come across as shallow and somewhat sad. The ladies of “Sex and the City” seem to have discovered this later rather than sooner. The conspicuous consumption persists as a substitute for spiritual and intellectual growth, but life lets them get away with it far less.

That is not to say that the film is without a worthwhile theme. Finding love is, after finding food, the prime human drive. Without giving away the plot (largely because one can’t be bothered to recount it), the ending teaches that it is not the label on the suit or dress that matters, but the person inside it. Quite why it needed 2 hours and 20-odd minutes to get to that can only be explained by the need to mention Vera Wang and Vivienne Westwood (who 30 years ago was important culturally – having shaped the punk look – but now is rather drab).

While a movie based on the series was probably inevitable, just as inevitable is the unlikelihood of another film. It is not that the characters are finished, quite the opposite. However, their lives have changed. They are no longer young, vibrant, single women with the world at their feet. Instead, they are veterans of the game of life, no longer as insouciant and carefree. It’s a much tougher sell to a movie audience.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Kensington Review Home