Catching up with The Sisterhood’s foursome after their first year of college, we find them all dealing with that instantly relatable feeling of trying to reconcile the concerns and friendships of their youth with their new busy lives studying and living in various places. As those who are of a certain age are readily aware, it’s a tough transitional time where friendships are put to the test but the girls all continue loyally shipping the worn pair of blue jeans to each other in the hopes they will slide not only into the denim but the miraculous good fortune the jeans are purported to inspire. However, predictably we learn that over the previous freshman year, The Sisterhood has started to drift, barely e-mailing one another with some beginning to view their traditional ceremony at the beginning of the summer as “forced” rather than the spontaneous and exciting ritual they’d begun in the original film.
Set over the course of another fateful summer and unfortunately given little in the way of shared screen time, we follow the adventurous events of each girl’s life in Chandler’s jam-packed script. In trying to be all things to all people, the screenplay grew in both complexity and length but unfortunately not in quality, most likely similar to those infamous, unhygienic jeans which have barely survived after too many trips through the washing machine along with racking up the frequent flyer miles from globe-trotting via FedEx. While overall, the film is so warm and comforting that it reminds one of a teddy bear, Sisterhood 2 is so overstuffed with plot points and introduces too many useless new characters that it is bursting at the seams and leaking stuffing and plot threads throughout.
Before the smash success of Ferrera’s Ugly Betty made her the marquee name of the sequel, the former film’s biggest “name” star, Gilmore Girls’ Alexis Bledel, reprises her role as the ultra-feminine, sweet-natured, sketch-happy Lena. Thrown for a heartbreaking loop early on, Lena’s on again/off again relationship with Kostas (Michael Rady) is jeopardized with some shocking news. Still reeling from the revelation about the man she assumed was her soul mate, she continues studying at the Rhode Island School of Design where her spirits are lifted when the possibility of a new love literally unfolds before her eyes in the form of Leo (Jesse Williams), a handsome fellow art student who moonlights as a nude model in exchange for studio time.
Article comments
1 - reseam
It actually sounds like the stayed pretty true to the books, and the ending that you say seems added, is the ending for the 4th book. It wasn't thrown together it's how it happened.
I know they would have to pull together elements of the other 3 books into this one, so it makes it seem "overfull". That's why for example, Bridget's storyline is cramped. You have her meeting her grandmother which is book 2, and the dig which is in book 4. You mentioned them not sharing much screen time, and in the books they don't share much time together either. So it wouldn't have been right to do it.
This is a story about their lives..and friendship, both together and apart.
2 - Jen
Thanks for your comment-- it was really cool to learn which elements came from which books since it's obvious you know the series well. Awesome!
Unfortunately, I hadn't read the books but when they tried to cram in the plots from the other books into one movie, it overwhelmed the script and the girls' stories seemed cheated since it all happens so fast and that ending from #4 just kind of swoops in.
I was glad you clarified Bridget's grandmother & dig plots-- makes me actually want to pick up the books since in the film, it was rushed and I would've preferred to read about it in the two books so the adequate amount of time was spent.
It's entertaining so I do think you'll really enjoy it, if you haven't seen it yet but while it's about their lives-- I guess like Bledel's show Gilmore Girls, the scenes shared together are my favorite!