Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is one of those summer movies that you go to with your friends and you laugh and you cry. It's going to be cute and a bit cliched you know before you even walk in, and I am completely alright with cliche. Well, for this second movie, the gals are back together or at least at a few points during the movie. It's the summer after freshman year in college and the girls return to do their ritual with the pants only to find they will all be parting ways this summer. This is news to Carmen (America Ferrara) who wants to keep the tradition alive with the ritual, and she quickly realizes she has to find something to do to. Bridget (the gorgeous Blake Lively) goes on an archealogical dig in Turkey, only to realize she needs to go see the grandmother she hasn't seen in years. She is partly guided to this decision by the leader of her dig, the Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo with the crazy low frog-Jabba the Hut voice. She is my new favorite person. So Bridget goes to find her grandma (Blythe Danner, rocking a Southern accent) in Alabama, and she finally comes to terms with her mother's suicide. Carmen goes to Vermont to help out at theater festival thanks to her semi-bitch Yale actress friend who's really tall where she ends up getting a part in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale thanks to a British boy with ridiculously perfect hair (Tom Wisdom). Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) spends the summer in New York, writing a script and experiencing a pregnancy scare after a night with her fiiiiiiine boyfriend, Brian ( Leonardo Nam). This is a really great plotline because both actors portray their relationship wonderfully. Lena (the porcelain-skinned Alexis Bledel) is talking a figure drawing class at RISD, where she has a fling with the model for the class (the fiiiiine Jesse Williams) which leads to some funny moments. All of this results in a trip to Greece that is a nice way to close the film. As you can tell this movie is epic. Their are so many things going on, I never felt like I was ever getting comfortable in any of the girls lives. Those girls are wonderful though. America Ferrara brings her usual heart and soul to her performance as Carmen, and watching her come out of her shell is nice. Blake Lively, current It Girl, gets lots of chances to emote, but thinking about it, she is the only current young actress who could play Bridget. Amber Tamblyn is the standout with her funny, sarcastic, and sad performance as Tibby. Her expressions convey so much, and Tibby becomes a complex, lovable character, much more of a complete person than she was in the first movie. Alexis Bledel, as Lena, is simply stunning, the most beautiful she's ever been. Her skin is a delicate pale, and she is put in classy summer dresses. Her story is sweet, and Bledel gets to show off some of her comedy chops. Though the cliches are present, these girls are so lovable, you don't mind.

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