StinkyLulu's Screening Log - Sex and the City (2008) +

A savvy installment in the franchise, updating the lives of the four protagonists for the big screen with wit, emotion and lots of fabulousness.  The pleasures of this film are that of the series:  familiar, beloved characters (performed by the actors who originated the roles) in new situations, their lives as personally, professionally and sexually empowered women having charted new territories of maturity.  The film is structured in 5 Acts centering upon Carrie's relationship with Big.  Act 1 shows the two deciding to move into a perfect home and reencountering the to-marry-or-not-to-marry conundrum that has defined the relationship.  Act 2 shows them getting engaged.  Act 3 shows them preparing for the wedding.  Act 4 depicts the aftermath of the wedding.  Act 5 edges toward forgiveness and new beginnings.  As with the series, the lives of Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte fold in and out of Carrie's central epic.  Miranda and Steve encounter what might be a dealbreaker for their future relationship; Samantha struggles to be happy living monogamously with Smith in Los Angeles; and Charlotte discovers she's actually pregnant.  The guys are there but, in ways that are more conspicuous than in the series, they are fairly irrelevant -- contributing plot twists and little else.  As always, Evan Handler's Harry is the most adept actor of the bunch, maneuvering the character's scripted limits with deft specificity and grace.  Chris Noth's Big is an annoying, retrograde, inscrutable cipher -- he inhabits the character easily but there's next to no texture or depth.  Likewise, Jason Lewis's Smith -- totally bland.  And, just like in the series, David Eigenberg's Steve is absolutely adorable and the actor's emotionally vivid but...Eigenberg's just not a great actor.  As for the women, Sarah Jessica Parker does the best work I've ever seen her do -- she understands this character and seems to be at her most fearless in this storyline.  Kim Cattrall is at her best when Samantha's vulnerable or protective and Cynthia Nixon's strongest when her Miranda's brittle facade is on the verge of cracking from fear (Nixon doesn't handle Miranda's rages as deftly - unfortunately, as Miranda's furious for much of the film). Jennifer Hudson introduces a new variant of the "magical negro" character with a mushmouthed sweetness, not an acting choice or characterization in sight.  Only Kristin Davis is truly excellent.  With Charlotte, Davis has refined a quick-witted clarity in the role of Charlotte -- she's able to switch from high-drama to high-farce in mere seconds, without ever losing track of the character or overtaking her scene partners.  Davis's Charlotte is at the center of the film's funniest sequence (pooping pants) and also it's most bone-chillingly sad.  The moment when Davis's Charlotte, having folding a devastated Carrie in her arms, stops Big cold with a massive, finger-waving "NOOOO" is the stuff of operatic power.  Then, moments later, Davis's Charlotte elicits a genuine laugh as she tiptoe scurries around the back of the limo, the giant black feather poof at her feet a comic black raincloud.  I can't help but thinking that Davis has the best handle on the acting style required of Sex and the City on the big screen.  I think she's just great -- a potential candidate for my entry into the Supporting Actress Blogathon for this year.  Visually, this film is fashion/style porn -- with jawdropping spectacles of "WTF is she WEARING?" every few minutes or so -- though it's on-point and in-character throughout. The queer content is nominal, with cameos from Mario Cantone and Willie Garson.  The film also presents the first real glimpse of ween, with Samantha's Malibu neighbor Dante's peek.  Finally, I think the film worked for me in a way the series often didn't in that it's really Carrie's story, with the lives of the other characters folding into and through her story for texture and tension, but this is the series of episodes in which Carrie Bradshow finally grows up.  And that's worth watching, and Sarah Jessica Parker does her thing to great effect in this character arc.  It's possibly the best I've seen SJP -- she's truly inside the character and her tics don't get in the way.  (In fact, I barely noticed them.)  And she looks great throughout the film (with the notable exception of one of the wedding dress pics), even when wearing a 70s tablecloth adorned with giant plastic gems and when wearing a giant wedding merengue complete with a blue bird in her hair.  A thoroughly entertaining installment in what might prove to be an enduring franchise.

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