Relaxed Fit
Tale of magic jeans appeals to inner tweens
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Now Playing at Area Theaters
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is exactly the kind of blockbuster tweener property that makes film producers salivate. Four teenage girls—best friends forever—having summer adventures in a magical pair of blue jeans? It just screams Hilary and Lindsay and somebody from The O.C., and think of the tie-in clothes and sleeping bags! Thank heavens somebody, somewhere, at Warner Brothers decided this didn't need to be a cavalcade of pubescent stardom. Fresh faces help Ann Brashares' novel, with its message of inevitable change but enduring friendship, reach the screen with a minimum of formulaic fuss and a healthy dose of improvisatory energy.
Amber Tamblyn from Joan of Arcadia is perhaps the weakest link in the quartet ensemble, playing a "rebel" with streaked hair and a snobbish desire to immortalize the lameness of her summer-job co-workers on film. Her storyline is saddled with by-the-numbers tragedies that impart predictable life lessons. But while she's languishing in suburban Maryland for the summer, the other members of the Sisterhood are having enough adventures to quicken the pulse of anyone who's ever been (or dreams of being) a teenage girl. Lena (played by Alexis Bledel, TV's Rory Gilmore) visits her grandparents on a Greek island and falls for a fisherman's son. Bridget (Blake Lively) goes to soccer camp in Mexico and throws herself at a college-age coach. And Carmen (America Ferrera) spends the summer with her divorced father in South Carolina—only to find that he's got a fiancée and a whole new stepfamily that she's expected to happily join.
They write to each other as they pass along the titular pants, that rarest of denim talismans that flatters each of their diverse butts equally. Carmen's story is the most affecting of the four; her discomfort with the blond Anglo perfection of the new wife and kids offers a new take on the usual party line about blended families. Bridget's soccer games give director Ken Kwapis (Malcolm in the Middle) a chance for dynamic movement and editing—most notably a thrilling cut from a ball kicked in South Carolina to one landing in Baja California. And delightful throwaway lines abound. About the pants: "There's something more than Lycra—but there is Lycra." About a cheerleader too hurt to twirl a baton: "She might have to just carry the banner!"
Not everything works here: some subplots are lost from the novel, some situations are simplified to their detriment, and some tears get jerked with the hoariest of clichés. But there's plenty to cheer about in this Sisterhood. It's the kind of club we'd all be better off if we could join.
—Donna Bowman
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