Getting Carried Away - A review of The Sex and The City Movie

This is the summer of blockbusters. There are films about men in iron suits attacking other men in iron suits, giant angry green men fighting on the streets of New York and then a man in a bat suit chasing a clown! See the common thread there? Usually the summer blockbuster is staple entertainment for 20-somethings around the world. It has been this way for some time now.

However, this year things appear to be quite different from the usual suspects of testosterone-driven, CGI-infested blockbusters. Four young(ish) women from New York will change all that. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) reunite for the motion picture adaptation of HBO’s Prime Time, Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning series, Sex and the City.

The original series, based on a novel by Candace Bushnell, premiered on HBO on June 6, 1998, and was one of the highest-rated sitcoms of the season. It became an anchor for the subscription-based network and pitted it against the free-to-air networks at the time. And because of its cable status, HBO claimed an edge over the other networks in being able to push the envelope of the series’ content by staying somewhat true to the book. The show ran for six seasons and defined the woman of the 21st century, her fashion sense and her ambitions: Both for work and love.

Now, four years later, and 10 years after the show first started, Carrie and the gang take their adventures and stories to the big screen. The film opens to the classic voiceover by Carrie explaining that “Year after year, 20-something women come to New York City in search of the two ‘L’s: Labels and love.” With that brief sentence (add another good two decades to the age factor) she recaptures and reiterates the essence of the series. The montage that follows brings us up to date on the characters and their story, four years after the show ended.

Here’s a quick primer on where our favorite characters are now: Miranda is now living in Brooklyn with Steve (David Eigenberg), their son, Brady, and their housekeeper, Magda (Lynn Cohen); Charlotte and Harry (Evan Handler) live in Upper East Side bliss with their daughter, Lily; and Samantha has made Malibu her home and manages the career of her actor boyfriend Smith (Jason Lewis). Meanwhile, Carrie herself is almost settling down with her on-again off-again but now on-for-the-moment beau, Mr Big aka John James Preston portrayed by Chris Noth.

Joining in the cast is Academy Award-winner Jennifer Hudson. She plays Carrie’s personal assistant, Louise, and brings a point of view from the younger members of the audiences, the 20-something crowd, about the show.

They say that behind every successful man is a woman. In this case it’s four successful women and behind them are two men: Michael Patrick King and Darren Star. It would be a mammoth task to bring the vision and feel of the show to the big screen, and any other director would have quite a difficult time. But not Michael Patrick King. He was an executive producer on the original show along with show creator Darren Star. He also directed most of the show’s latter seasons.

Star paid Bushnell a reported $50,000 for the rights of her book and her columns and used them to develop the series, which would be realised by directors such as King later on in the season’s run. But it is King now who directs and writes the film and he has kept Star’s original vision in mind.

This, however, is not the first time they’ve tried to make a Sex and the City film. Shortly after the series ended in 2004, rumors began to circulate about the film. Nothing came to realisation however, as further rumors instigated that three out of the four girls did not want to sign up unless they were being paid almost or equal to the amount that Sarah Jessica Parker was getting. There were also rumours that Kim Cattrall did not see eye to eye with Sarah Jessica Parker because the latter had trimmed down the former’s character in the show’s later years.

Sarah Jessica Parker became the producer of the show later on in its run and indeed, the limelight shifted from the show-stealing Cattrall to the show’s star, Parker. But it seems all of that is buried in kitty litter now as the girls put their past differences aside for this outing.

By definition, Sex and the City is the mother of all chick flicks. Add one part marriage, one part couple wanting a baby, two parts woman coming to terms with her age, and a dash of romance sprinkled with funny moments all round. But you can’t limit it to that; it’s so much more.

For fans of the show this film is like getting a letter from a loved one, a visual treat and nod to a series that brought so much fun and joy to its fans. To its critics, it is everything that is wrong about the show: A giant glorification of beauty that is skin deep and celebrating bad jokes in just as bad a taste.

It is no justification to call this film a romantic comedy. Sure, there are moments that are romantic and moments that are comedic. It’s also emotionally realistic, even brutal. The characters are now in their 40s and 50s, and yet they continue to navigate the choppy waters of urban life, negotiating relationships, work, fertility and friendship. Only now, because this is the film, the stakes are higher, the risks are bigger and decisions feel more permanent.

The story predominately revolves around Carrie getting married to Mr Big and interwoven in between are the stories of the other characters. At the same time, the stories are told in such a way that it confounds the audience’s expectations, but satisfyingly so. The surprise of course is in the ability to confound the expectation of an already established (and some would say exhausted) story of a character, which King so brilliantly does.

There is also the question of will they or won’t they? Women have had to bear with buildings being blown up and planes being hijacked and dinosaurs roaming the streets of the cities, so will men go to watch this film? It is only fair that now men bear with four women, as they talk about aging, life, relationships and love.

But being released on the heels of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, one would think it wouldn’t stand a chance. To date, Sex and the City has made $222,786,392 worldwide, meaning that fans have indeed welcomed the show back with breathless anticipation and open arms.

So is this the final chapter in the lives of Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha? Probably not. Because if Carrie and the girls have their way, they have a whole lot of stories left to tell.

(This review appeared in the June 15th Edition of DAWN Images)

Ugly Betty

Image via WikipediaImagine if Cinderella was a girl who worked in the office of a publishing magazine, forever waiting for her fairy godmother and her chance to meet prince charming.

That may be the gist of Ugly Betty, but its true beauty lies beneath its surface. Starring newcomer America Ferrera (from the The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants) as the title character Betty Suárez, the show sets itself apart from other shows by displaying an extremely broad sense of humour. But this is more of a dramedy than it is comedy, as Betty soon realises that she is in a difficult and testing world, being surrounded by chic, self-declared style gurus.

She may not live up to their standards of beauty, but as a person she may be the fairest in the land. This fact is discovered by her boss, editor-in-chief of MODE Magazine, Daniel Meade (played by Eric Mabius) who initially dismissed Betty as a nobody. But soon he begins to see her worth and decides to keep her around anyways. But not everyone takes a liking to Betty so easily, as is the case of receptionist and prankster Amanda Sommers (Becki Newton) and Marc St. James (Michael Urie), who try their best to humiliate Betty every chance they get.

The show is not an original, in fact it is adapted from a popular Columbian TV show, called “Yo soy Betty, la fea (I Am Betty, The Ugly One)”. The show has also been adapted as an Indian soap, “Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin” which also saw some success with our audiences.

Whatever the version, Ugly Betty is comedy show with an acute sense of humour laced with drama that will surely touch everyone’s hearts. Season one and two are now out on DVD but currently only the first season is available with special features.

(This review was published in the 12th June, 2008, edition of Dawn, The Review)

YSL in Film...

Fashion giant Yves Saint Laurent passed away on June 2, 2008. Yves may not be with us today, but his influence will continue to live on. Not just through his work for the masses but also in the people, music and movies that have been influenced by him.

Yves Saint Laurent, a shy introverted person, brought about an extroverted change in the very weave of the fabric and the cut of the costume. Yves believed that the actor was the soul of the character that he or she portrayed and the costume its vessel or body. It played as much a part in creating that sense of belief for the audience as the actor did. At the age thirteen he attended a performance of L'Ecole des femme staged by Louis Jouvet and with sets and costumes by Christian Berard, the young French designer’s fascination began. The door to his future had been opened.

Count Hubert de Givenchy had already treaded onto the silver screen earlier with the 1954 romantic comedy, Sabrina. Though Givenchy would establish Audrey Hepburn in the now classic film as a sort of unearthly and unattainable beauty, Yves Saint Laurent would bring that fleeting sense of beauty within the reach of every woman.

His tryst with the silver screen began in 1963 with Blake Edward’s The Pink Panther. Yves Saint Laurent was hired to create wardrobes for the beautiful Claudia Cardinale and Capucine, and his designs impressed critics and audiences. Though the general audience may have overlooked the designs and wardrobe, the fashion world stood up and took notice.

He was 17 when he started working for a fashion house and at 24, still at House Dior, he started designing costumes for movies. It was however with The Pink Panther that he truly branched out with his own name and flair. He would go on to design fabulous wardrobes for Leslie Caron in A Very Special Favor and Jean Seberg in Moment to Moment.

In 1966, Spanish director Luis Buñuel hired Yves Saint Laurent for his motion picture Belle de Jour. In it Yves found his muse in the form of actress Catherine Deneuve. The friendship they formed on the set of the film was to last a lifetime, Deneuve would go on to model for the designer and her physical demeanor became the base of all his designs. In turn, the actress insisted on wearing only Yves Saint Laurent dresses for her movies, she would don his creations in such films as La Chamade, Mississippi Mermaid, Liza, Un flic and The Hunger. Yves Saint Laurent’s distinct fashion sense and Deneuve’s sense of character complemented each other in a marriage of beauty and temperament.

However, it is not just the world of cinema, music and fashion that have felt his influence. His largest influence has brought women onto the same level of power as men. Women like Hillary Clinton, for example, exude a sense of confidence and power that is helping them to possibly become the single most powerful person on the planet. What has given her that sense of power and prestige? Her trademark business suit. In actuality, it wasn’t even Yves Saint Laurent that brought the suit to the women, it was Coco Chanel. Yves Saint Laurent made the suit an every woman’s suit.

So whether it’s the business woman walking down the street or the lavish design in a motion picture, the legacy of Yves Saint Laurent continues to live on.