I haven’t seen the first film, but my understanding is that four girls find a pair of pants that fit each perfectly and form a bond around them. This sequel only proves that if you pass a pair of pants around enough that they get frayed around the edges.
Carmen (America Ferrera) is looking forward to the summer break to reunite with her sisterhood that was formed around a lucky pair of pants. What she discovers is that all of her friends have moved on and are caught up in their own lives.
Since her friends are all busy, Carmen decides to go to drama camp with her school chum, but ends up getting the lead in the play that will lead to some tension between her new friend and possibly romance for Carmen.
Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) is looking for a job and also celebrating her ten month anniversary with her boyfriend. Events during that celebration lead to potential life changing events and much stress for her.
Lena (Alexis Bledel) discovers that Kostas (Michael Rady), her love interest from the first film, is married and therefore unattainable. She is going to college and meets up with a hunky art model from her drawing class, but things with Kostas might not be as over as she thought.
Bridget (Blake Lively) is going to Turkey to participate in an archeological dig but discovers that her father has withheld her grandmother’s letters from her and this leads to some tension and a desire to find her grandmother (Blythe Danner).
As I said before, I’ve not seen the first film, but I’m not sure it is necessary since I was able to pick up the plot pretty quickly. What I did wonder is how big a role the actual pants played in the proceedings.
For being in the title of the film, they seem to be relegated to cameo appearance and more of an afterthought, but they do become an unlikely plot device later on. I don’t mean to be insulting but I find it implausible that these pants could perfectly fit all of our young stars since they have different physiques, but hey that’s Hollywood. It’s just a plot device anyway.
Those pants are stretched pretty thin though as each of the girl’s stories seems like it could’ve been stretched into a film of its own. It’s my understanding that plot elements from three of the Traveling Pants novels are used for this one film.
There’s also a short interlude with Lena’s sister that seems to hint at Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: the Next Generation (of actresses that we can pay scale). It might’ve seemed unlikely that a sequel to the first film would’ve happened since the young stars had become more famous, but this second outing of the pants should please the fans of the film.
I wasn’t too emotionally involved with the film but could see how fans could be swept up in the fantasy along with our four stars.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.85:1). Special features are in high definition, but are more like a pair of short shorts than long pants (in other words, rather skimpy). The 4 minute “Go Jump off a Cliff” looks at how the film’s finale was conceived.
Next is a 4 minute gag reel and 8 minutes of additional footage. There’s also a second disc with a digital copy that you can download to your portable device or PC. That’s all, told you it wasn’t much.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is a good film if you’re a young girl or fan of the novels. I was entertained, but am not part of the intended audience. That being said I did enjoy the film, but thought it stretched the plot a little thin since it had to fit in four storylines.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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