The last time we saw this foursome—Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), and Charlotte (Kristin Davis)—they seemed settled. Carrie finally married Mr. Big (Chris Noth) after their ten-year on-again-off-again love affair. Charlotte finally got her babies. Miranda forgave Steve's infidelity and they mended their marriage. And Samantha realized monogamy, even with her beloved Smith, just wasn't her thing—and that she desperately needed to get her independent self back to NYC. Because of that settled-ness, I was curious about where they'd take us with this next installment in the SATC franchise.

So here we are two years later. Carrie and Big are trying to keep the sparkle in their marriage. Charlotte is elated but utterly exhausted as a mom of two young girls. Miranda is still struggling to balance family and work, now with a new boss who seems to hate her. And Samantha is fighting off menopause with a barrage of pills, creams, and wonder drugs.

For those who have followed these characters for years, these plot lines make perfect sense—and seem like good fodder for the life questions these women grapple with together, while letting us sit in on the discussion. Unfortunately, instead of really wrestling with these issues, the women merely escape them, traveling to Abu Dhabi on a work trip with Samantha. And instead of unfolding the next chapters in these characters' lives, it seems that writer/director Michael Patrick King and company are more intent on one-upping the last movie.

Cynthia Nixon as Miranda, Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie

Cynthia Nixon as Miranda, Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie

In the first SATC movie, we had Carrie and Big's (almost) New York Public Library wedding. In SATC2, we get Stanford and Anthony's Big Fat Gay Wedding, complete with Liza Minnelli officiating the ceremony and singing a rousing but rather uncomfortable version of "All the Single Ladies." The first movie had the girls traveling to Mexico together for Carrie's un-honeymoon. Here they travel to Abu Dhabi on Samantha's work trip for an opulent, all-expenses-paid, exotic getaway. The first movie had mini fashion shows of Carrie's wedding dress magazine photo shoot and nostalgic cleaning out of her closet with the girls. Now we have over-the-top desert chic. And instead of just celebrating the power of female friendship, which the first movie did rather endearingly, SATC2 celebrates the "power" of womankind (more on that "power" later), complete with Samantha flipping off some Muslim clerics.

Those who simply want a fun chick flick will likely be fine with all this. Consider it an estrogen-rich two-hour escape for you and your girlfriends. But for those of us who appreciated the TV series' and the first movie's ability to transcend the fashion and sex and touch on the deeper issues of culture and womanhood and relationships, this SATC installment is a disappointment. It's like sitting down to dinner with an old friend only to have her start singing show tunes or staging a fashion show of all her best ensembles. All while you're thinking, Please just calm down so we can settle into some rich conversation already!

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Kim Cattrall as Samantha

Kim Cattrall as Samantha

And we've lost all relatability with these characters. Before, despite the wild fashions and not-so-moral life choices, there were ways even we sexless-in-the-suburbs women could find connection points with these four characters. The search for love, the struggle to be in a relationship and still retain a sense of self, the guilt when your life is good and your close friends' lives are crap, the difficulty of staying connected to friends when they marry or have kids—these were all relatable issues, even for those of us walking out these questions and lives in Skechers instead of Jimmy Choos.

All that said, there's the hint of an intriguing and relatable plot line with Carrie and Big. But if they're going to wrestle with keeping the love alive in their marriage, I wish we'd seen them at five years or ten years instead of only two years into their union. And in the end, I'm not sure they really find any sort of resolution to the issue—as they get sidetracked by Carrie's trip and ex-boyfriend temptation (she runs into Aidan in Abu Dhabi). Their attempt to live marriage by their own rules—especially as a couple that have opted not to have kids—is interesting, but not fully realized here.

There's also some relatability when Miranda and Charlotte slowly admit to each other their motherhood angst. They love their kids dearly even as the little darlings make them absolutely crazy. And all the moms in the audience say, "Amen!" But there's something about seeing these two women have this conversation in couture in the private bar in their deluxe suite in a dreamy desert paradise of a hotel that takes some of the oomph out of it. Even they seem to get this, acknowledging that they both have nannies and wondering how on earth women without any help survive. I half expected them to turn to the audience, raise their martini glasses, and say, "Here's to you mere mortal moms!"

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Chris Noth as Mr. Big

Chris Noth as Mr. Big

I also found myself wishing that if Carrie and Charlotte and Miranda were going to struggle with not-so-fresh female issues—keeping love alive in marriage, keeping your sanity as a mom—that they'd done so with a bit of a fresher twist. I know these writers are capable of that, but they don't deliver here.

Charlotte also frets over the threat of her beautiful, built, and bra-less nanny (cue the wet T-shirt scene). And Samantha fights the female threat of menopause. In these journeys we see other women and realities of the female experience as scary and threatening and bad.

Yet at the same time the film tries to celebrate womankind with a lame definition of female strength. Samantha seems to think female empowerment is being able to have sex wherever you want—including a public beach in a conservative Muslim culture. When she gets in trouble with the local authorities for her antics and her fashion choices (despite the fact she voluntarily and all-too-gladly agreed to come to their country), she works herself into a fit of pelvic thrusts and middle-finger salutes to a group of male Muslim leaders. I know this is supposed to be funny, but as one who has traveled to many other countries, I'm reminded me of all the reasons American tourists have a bad reputation abroad—and why some Muslims aren't so fond of us here in the States.

Kristin Davis as Charlotte

Kristin Davis as Charlotte

Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha also connect with the local burka-clad women over fashion and a Suzanne Somers book. Couture is the source of their solidarity and the silent statement these local women are making under all that black, oppressive fabric. Oh, of course I wasn't expecting them all to sit down and discuss world peace or the politics of feminism, but maybe even a hint at something more than Chanel as the great equalizer and answer? This hollow celebration of universal womanhood comes to a head in the foursome's karaoke performance of "I Am Woman," a vanilla rendition that somehow gets women of all races and ages and religions in the audience to stand and cheer and sing along. This brand of female empowerment seems more laughable than liberating.

Part of the problem is that the balance is off. These four characters usually balance each other well—Charlotte the more conservative voice of morality and Samantha the edgy provocateur, with Carrie and Miranda landing somewhere in the middle. Here Charlotte is mostly fake smiles and fretful whining and Samantha is pretty over the top with her sexuality, especially toward the end of the film. With our bookends misplaced, there's less order and peace in the overall mix.

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And I haven't even gotten to the morality of SATC2. It certainly doesn't line up with a Christian worldview, and I'm offended by the couple of sex scenes that seem included merely for shock value. But some people seem extra offended by the sexual content of these movies, when other films—with much more sexual content—barely trip the morality radar. I'm sure it has something to do with the word "sex" in the title and in perceptions of how that's played out in the film—despite the fact that monogamy and faithfulness really are the main goals for three of the four main characters.

I wanted to like this film. So often movies end with the coveted love or child or reunion, when so much of the interesting stuff of life happens next. With SATC2 we were supposed to get a peek at that "next." Instead we got a fanciful vacation and a fluffy version of female power. These characters and writers are capable of so much more. And that's perhaps the most frustrating thing of all.

Talk About It

Discussion starters
  1. Which of the women do you relate with most? Why?
  2. if you're married, have you ever wrestled to keep the romance alive in your relationship? If so, how have you found help or resolution?
  3. if you're a frazzled mom, how have you found comfort in other moms—or in other means?
  4. There's a theme of taking time off running through the movie. What's the balance between getting away and running away/avoidance?
  5. Do you think Carrie should have called Big to confess from Abu Dhabi? If not, how do you think she should have handled the situation? There's a theme about women's voices being heard and not heard. In what ways are women silenced? In what ways do women use their voice well? And in what ways do women use their voice poorly?

The Family Corner

For parents to consider

Sex and the City 2 is rated R for some strong sexual content and language. We see Samantha have sex with two different men she's just met (in two different scenes). Though the scenes are relatively brief, there are fairly explicit full-body shots of sexual activity. We see some guy-on-guy kissing in the gay wedding scenes. Charlotte's quite buxom nanny goes bra-less and seems to jump around a lot—and, of course, get doused with a hose in one scene. Samantha is rather crude and disrespectful to some religious leaders. She also applies some sort of vaginal cream in one scene—it's more implied than shown, but still icky. SPOILER ALERT: Carrie kisses Aidan though she's married to Mr. Big, an act she immediately confesses and apologizes for.

Sex and the City 2
Our Rating
2 Stars - Fair
Average Rating
 
(19 user ratings)ADD YOURSHelp
Mpaa Rating
R (for some strong sexual content and language)
Genre
Directed By
Michael Patrick King
Run Time
2 hours 26 minutes
Cast
Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis
Theatre Release
May 27, 2010 by New Line Cinema
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