Gerald Wright's Movie Coverage
SEX IN THE CITY 2
Directed by: Michael Patrick King
Running time: 146 min.
Release date: May 27, 2010
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance and Sequel
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
MPAA Rating: R
Once again beautiful women, handbags, shoes, and jewelry dazzle the motion picture screens as the ladies from New York City bring Sex In The City back. All four stars Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie), Cynthia Nixon (Miranda), Kristin Davis (Charlotte), and Kim Cattrall (Samantha) return in this sequel. Chris Noth reprises his role of Mr. Big, and returning is Evan as Harry Goldenblatt, John Corbett as Aiden Shaw, and David Eigenberg plays Steve Brady once more. Willie Garson returns as Stanford Blatch, and Mario Cantone is again playing Anthony Marentino. The original cast of Sex in the City is almost complete.
The female "Fab Four Of Fashion" begin the film with flashbacks and connects with their modern day lives, which sets up a theme for the ladies to question who they have become. Song and dance sequences showcase Liza Minneli lip-syncing poorly at a gay wedding as the screen sparkles with glamour. The plot's intention is to display delightful things for the audience to follow. However, when wonderful things occur in the film, and it fails to bring delight or laughs to the audience, you have to wonder what went wrong in the execution of a film.
The genesis of the Samantha character was originally of a woman showing a particular persistent desire for sex. In this film, she is looking for fulfillment anywhere, everywhere, and with anyone. There are certain scenes of embarrassment when Samantha's (Cattrall) sexual appetite brings tasteless humor to the story. This comes across rather trashy and crude. As we all know, it is humorous when others lose their dignity, when for us the same situation would be dreadful. Unfortunately, the film's concepts pertaining to Samantha's 50 year old plus hormone rage don't deliver the familiar one-two punch timing anymore.
Carrie (Parker) still has the flair for the "garb and bling", but that is all her performance brings to the screen. The original television and film character experienced emotions of doubt and sought to find resolutions for her love life. In this film, she experiences doubts about her non-traditional style marriage with Big (Noth), but the problems are weak in substance. Rather than addressing this minor problem, the plot takes off with Carrie and Samantha leading the ladies on an adventure to exotic places to tackle religious and cultural injustices of women.
Lawyer Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and housewife Charlotte (Kristin Davis) characters are solid. Nixon and Davis give good performances that I found realistic, yet humorously thought provoking. Disaster wreaks havoc in their professional and personal lives, and this is the one part of the movie I found humorous.
As events transpire to bring out hidden secrets of these two characters, I found myself engaged in the film. Their dialogue consists of clever witticism and they make some acute social observations. At times, the absurdity of the ridiculous and nonsensical takes over in the lives of these characters.
In a few small dramatic and comedic scenes actors Penelope Cruz (Carmen), Miley Cyrus (Herself), Heidi Klum (Herself), Tuesday Knight (Herself), Dhaffer L'Abidine, and Omid Djalili show support. Alicia Keys, Erykah Badu, and Cyndi Lauper perform on the soundtrack.
It is a shame that producer Sarah Jessica Parker, director Michael Patrick King, and screenplay writer Darren Star decided to do this film project. In my opinion, this is "Unsatisfying Sex In The City" for the audience.
(C-)
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