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Partners
Sex and the City: The MovieThis unstoppable juggernaut has had its engines revving since 2004 so don't think there's any stopping it now. Rather than just a clean break, 'Sex And The City's' millions of fans were given hope their relationship with Samantha (Cattrall), Carrie (Parker), Miranda (Hobbes) and Charlotte (Davis) could be resumed if they'd just wait for the film. It was the kind of on again/off again relationship that Carrie and Mr Big endured for most of the TV show's 10-year run.
And then finally the photos started to appear in newspapers which proved that 'Sex And The City' was indeed coming back to us. The waiting was over. Talk about a long build-up.
Coming very much from the school of 'give them what they want', this is possibly the only TV tie-in film to successfully transplant the essence of the small screen hit onto the bigger canvas. Before the credits have run, Carrie has worn five or six outfits. After being zonked in the face with 20ft high pink glittery lettering announcing the film's arrival we're straight into a recap of where each character is in their life so any bored boyfriends in the audience will at least up to speed.
Then it's a blur of photo shoots with dresses, catwalk shows with dresses and even a scene in which Carrie just tries on dresses from her wardrobe while the girls watch, just in case you were feeling a bit cheated on the fashion front. Patricia Field must be the hardest-working wardrobe mistress in history. Never mind the writers' strike of 2007, this film would be nothing without the gratuitous attention to wardrobe. And there's no shame in that. As long as you understand that this is what the film is for, you're laughing.
The laughs do come pretty thick and fast thanks to Michael Patrick King's sparkling script. Most of the big guffaws are thanks to Kim Cattrall's neatly timed faux pas. In the heaving mass of shoes, dresses and hype it's easy to forget that this foursome have real comic chops and a lack of vanity which make the comic moments really live. (See Nixon's pant moustache in the Mexican beach scene.)
Yes, they take a trip to Mexico at one point and New York's greys and browns are swapped for the travel brochure skies of a five star holiday resort complete with obligatory beachwear section. Then it's back to rainy New York for the turmoil-filled second chunk of the story.
It's a perfectly set-out if slightly overlong narrative arc. The first third of the film is one big fairytale with lashings of wish-fulfilment. Then, just when you think you've had too much cake, it's snatched away from you and the meaty stuff is wheeled out. And this is where we stay, dipping in and out of the four girls' stories. While Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte are in New York, juggling motherhood, marriage and real estate, Samantha is in LA with her Hollywood star boyfriend.
If rumours of a rift with Cattrall are true, then some mischievous storyliner had fun ensuring that Samantha had to 'get fat' and turn 50 during the course of the film. Ouch. If there's a sequel, she'll be buried up to her neck and covered in ants.
But no one really cares whether the actors get on or not. A reunion with these former friends is so rewarding you'll leave the cinema sated and glad you came. King is no heavyweight but he does understand how to pace something emotionally. He may stick to primary colours and bold strokes but he makes good use of light and shade.
If you weren't a fan to begin with, this film is unlikely to win you over. But pipe down and let the rest of us have our fun, can't you?
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