Movies Reviews

Sex and the City 2 Movie Review

By Anne Brodie May 26, 2010, 15:20 GMT

The fun, the fashion, the friendship: "Sex and the City 2" brings it all back and more as Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) take another bite out of The Big Apple--and beyond--carrying on with their busy lives and loves in a sequel that truly sparkles. ...more

Sex and the City 2 is pure, undiluted escapist delight.  It must not be taken as serious filmmaking about serious subjects or for its probing views of human nature or character development.  It’s a fun story, with a few bonuses thought provokers, bathed in lusciousness and wrapped up with sparkles.

Its guiltiest pleasure in this day and age of narrow-minded cultural ideas, is that it reveres four older women with wrinkles, hot flashes and growing awareness of no longer being ‘young’ but who have no regrets.  Each character’s story is organic for her and natural in that it takes place in specific times and places that make sense.
We’re taken back to when they met, in a hilarious sequence that showcases eighties hair, clothes, attitudes and innocence.  Carrie can’t catch a cab, that’s how green they are.  And Miranda’s horrendous bowl haircut worn with a business suit and running shoes is pure New York Stone Age.

Flash-forward to the girls having conquered Manhattan (a city built on wampum/jewellery they point out).  Its two years since we saw them last and they’re facing domestic obstacles– marital staleness, a sexy nanny, a brutal job that interferes with child raising, and in Samantha’s case, an obsessive dependence on hormones to boost her wavering sex drive.

The girls are off to their two gay best friends’ wedding, an extravaganza featuring tonnes of white gauze, swans, a male choir, and Liza!  Liza Minnelli’s spectacularly rousing dance sequence sets the stage for all kinds of delicious excess.  It’s a real highlight.

The girls are invited to Abu Dhabi, all expenses paid by a sheik interested Samantha’s skills of promotion.  They are guests at his eye popping desert hotel and have all kinds of privileges and adventures at the Sook, riding camels, pondering Arabic women’s dress code and how they eat under traditional face coverings.  And in Samantha’s case, trying to muffle her sexiness.  She’s arrested for feeling up a handsome Danish hotel guest. 

The movie has been tagged for being anti-Arab and in some ways it does seem a tad xenophobic, but the contrast between Middle East and Manhattan is the crux of the humour and mostly gently expressed. 

SATC2 is long but moves well.  These girls demand our consideration and the least we can do is settle in and enjoy bathing in exoticism with them and being inspired by their loyalty, zest, and love of clothes.

Just one gripe - Carrie behaves in a manner which is out of character when she relentlessly nags Big in their marital condo.  She looks like her world is ending when he puts his shoes on the couch, refuses to come to a party, and buys her a flat screen TV.  I guess that in keeping with the cartoon-esque slant of the series/movies, it does compress time and events in a neat 2 minute bitchfest.  Still.