DVD Review : Sex and the City 2

Last week, I watched "Sex and the City 2" on DVD for the first time. I missed it in the theater, due to busy schedules and the neurosis I have that keeps me from seeing movies in a theater by myself.

So I met up with a friend and her couch and we had some old-fashioned girl talk and watched the movie.

First Impressions : It's been a while since I've seen anything "Sex and the City" related. The first movie came out two years ago and I watched the series regularly in college. But the first major scene (Stanford and Anthony's wedding) seemed SO outrageous. The dialogue was completely stilted and forced. It seemed awkward, almost.

I realize that the purpose of "Sex and the City" is not to reflect reality, but come on. No one talks with a pun or one-liner in every sentence.

And then there's Liza : Liza Minnelli showed up to officiate the gay wedding, which was uber-decadent and dripping with fabulousness. Does it make sense that Liza is officiating the wedding? No. Do we care? Hell no. Because this happened:



YOU GO, GIRL. Love it.

Reminder that the characters have more money than you can think of making in your lifetime : Nannies, dresses, shoes, quitting a job because your boss is "threatened by strong women." But that is nothing on the major plot point of the movie -- Samantha meets a sheikh from Abu Dhabi who wants to hire her to do PR for his business. In order to get her introduced to his business (which he presents as all of Abu Dhabi), he is going to fly Samantha to his hotel in Abu Dhabi, all expenses paid. Of course, she demands that he also extend this offer to her three best girlfriends. So he does. And they go.

The Problems : Samantha is 52 and trying to fight off menopause through hormone creams in order to keep up her libido and stave off hot flashes. Miranda has problems with one of the law partners disrespecting her at the office. Charlotte can't parent her children without the help of her young and braless nanny (the youngest one, Rose, screams and cries all day and night and drives Charlotte crazy), and Charlotte is afraid that her husband is going to have an affair with her. And Carrie is afraid that her marriage is turning her and Big into a boring married couple; she also gets a negative review on her new book about marriage, so she reacts by kissing Aiden, who is in Abu Dhabi on business (of course he is).

The Real Moment : While in Abu Dhabi, Miranda and Charlotte find themselves at dinner alone, and Miranda engages Charlotte in talk about motherhood. It's the one part of the movie that can resonate with women of any paygrade -- motherhood is hard. It's a lot of work, even if you have a nanny (and they give props to the women who don't have nannies). Women get annoyed by their children, even though they love them. It happens. The friend who watched the movie with me has three children and she commented on the conversation with, "Amen!"

The Unanswered Questions : Charlotte's youngest daughter is portrayed as being inconsolable with her screaming and crying. After the first scene of the crying, my friend said, "Oh no, she must be autistic. Kids don't just scream like that for no reason." But there's no explanation given. The resolution is just that Charlotte is able to take "a few days off" from motherhood in order to recover from the difficulties of parenting when you have a live-in nanny.

Overall Score : Two rainbows out of five. It's always fun to see these characters. I don't have the same relationship with them as I did when I originally watched the series (being in the real world myself rather than just imagining it makes their lavish lifestyles seem even more ridiculous), but it's still fun to watch.

Overall Gay : Two rainbows out of five. There has been a lot of critique that the gays in the movie are portrayed in stereotypical and therefore harmful ways (at the wedding between Stanford and Anthony, it is revealed that Stanford got to plan the lavish and ridiculous wedding so Anthony gets to cheat, which is a damaging portrayal of a homosexual relationship), but the fashion and Liza will slightly make up for it. Or at least make you only slightly remember it, since once the wedding is over those characters don't reappear for the rest of the movie.