Love Your Sisters. Love Your Self.
Carmen and her three friends have known and loved one another for as long as they can remember. Their mothers met in prenatal class. There's Bridget a blonde take charge kind of girl. Lena the shy Greek artist. Tibby the rebel-with-a-cause film documentarian. And Carmen, the writer. Carmen is also the narrator of this story that works on the themes of fate, friends, family and self respect.
The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants is based on the novel of the same title by Ann Brashares Ann has a whole series dedicated to the friends and the pants. The girls are all 16 and have never been apart. But this year they are all going off in their own directions for the summer. Before they depart they go on one last shopping trip together. For a joke they try on the same pair of jeans Carmen casually pulls from a bin of disorganized clothing. The girls all different shapes and sizes all magically fit into the same pair of jeans.
They decide to buy the jeans and share them over the summer as a way of keeping in touch. In a candle celebration where their mothers met they reside over flame, paper and ink and develop the "Sisterhood Manifesto" containing rules they all must abide while wearing the pants; like, each girl gets the pants for a week, no picking your nose while wearing the pants, writing a letter about something exciting that happened while wearing the pants and sending it along with the pants to the next girl. They hold hands and chant "The pants - the sisterhood - the summer. The rest of our lives Together and apart." then blow out the candles.
LENA is played by Alexis Bledel from Gilmore Girls. She travels to Greece with pants in tow to visit her grandparents. Her first time wearing the pants she falls off the dock, the pant leg catches on a piece of metal and she almost drowns. She is saved by gorgeous Greek student Kostas Dounas (Michael Rady) who, she is told by her grandmother, is ruthless and untrustworthy. Lena quickly sends pants off to Tibby with a letter telling her the pants almost killed her. Greece is breathtaking.TIBBY is played by Amber Tamblyn from Joan of Arcadia. Poor Tibby is stuck at home working in Wallman's department store. While on the job a girl collapses and Tibby calls the ambulance. The girl, played by Jenna Boyd, shows up on Tibby's doorstep a few days later because a parcel (containing the pants) was delivered to her door by accident (or was it).
CARMENcita is played by America Ferrera from Real Women Have Curves. Carmen visits her dad, played by Bradley Whitford (West Wing), in South Carolina. He hasn't spent more than four days with her since she was ten. She is very excited about having him all to her self for the summer. Instead he surprises her by bringing her to his new home in the suburbs with his blonde beautiful fiancée (Nancy Travis) and her two blonde perfect kids.
Carmen is the next to get the pants after getting lost in the mail system for a bit. When they arrive she is thrilled. She wears them when she goes for the bridal fitting which is a disaster. The staff and future step mom treat her as if she isn't there or doesn't have ears while they pulls and pinch at the pink satin number that doesn't fit Carmen's luscious Spanish curves. She quickly changes back into the pants and tells them off.
BRIDGET is played by newcomer Blake Lively. She travels to Les Campeonas, a sport soccer camp for girls in Baha. Bridget is a showboat, not a team player. She sets her sights on one of the coaches. He's blonde, she's blonde. He's competitive, she's competitive. A perfect match except he's a coach and she's a student and it just isn't allowed. Now if only the pants would arrive so she can get her man.
None of the girls think anything other than bad things happened when they wore the pants but the viewer sees otherwise; the pants gave them a voice. Ken Kwapis did an excellent job of directing these young women and their separate stories. It reminded me a lot of If These Walls Could Talk where the women from different eras were connected by the same house.
All the girls played their parts excellently but America Ferrera seemed to pave the way with the narrating and her dominate role. She faces similar conflicts in this role as she did in Real Women Have Curves but it isn't the focus of her story line. If you're a fan of any of these women it's well worth seeing.
The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants is about being open to new relationships while maintaining ties with the old. It's also about spreading your wings, making your own decisions and standing up for yourself. Basically, it's about becoming an adult except more entertaining. Overall, it has a good message for women no matter what their age. Have your Kleenex handy.
Features:
1. Fun on the Set - The girls talk about working with one another and being friends on and off the set.
2. Suckumentary - Amber narrates as Tibby her documentary on losers.
3. Video Commentary on Sisters Secrets and the Travelling Pants - Amber, Alexis and America (Blake on speaker phone) sit on the floor with treats talking about the secrets behind the movie like the blonde hair extensions Blake had to wear for her character. America kept direction going as they watched selected scenes and talked about them.
4. A Conversation with Ann Brashares - Writing, the book, and making it into a movie.
5. Director's Commentary
6. Theatrical Trailer
Warner Brothers Pictures/Alcon Entertainment, 2005
Purchase The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants DVD from Amazon.com.
Purchase The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants DVD from Amazon.ca.
