While their scenes are filled with emotional potential, especially with the pitch-perfect casting of Blythe Danner who manages to give Blake Lively more to do than simply pout and sigh like her Gossip Girl character Serena, the effect is overly rushed and too much time is spent trying to juggle the other, less interesting plots. However, in retrospect, the other characters’ arcs may have been put on the front burner since Bridget’s is the only one that doesn’t involve romance and Warner Brothers most likely wanted to ensure the teen viewers had enough chances to swoon at the attractive male stars in Lena, Tibby, and Carmen’s storylines.
In my humble opinion, the best actress of the group is Joan of Arcadia's Amber Tamblyn as the wisecracking, cynical, aspiring filmmaker Tibby (a more likable version of Thora Birch’s Enid from Ghost World) and while she was given an admittedly contrived plotline in the first Sisterhood, it was also one of the film’s most moving storylines. This time around, despite being tossed one Juno-like plot device which Tamblyn plays to masterful comedic effect, she’s wasted here and in some scenes it feels like she’s only set to enter just to deliver a well-written, witty line (for proof, just check out the film’s trailer). Unfortunately, aside from a superb build-up to a conflict that never fully materializes in a way that’s beneficial to the script other than to end up as an obstacle to romantic happiness with her equally hip beau Brian (Leonardo Nam), we get far too much Carmen playing Shakespeare than we’d like.
While fans of the original are sure to enjoy it, the film ends on an unintentionally hilarious note via a ridiculously spontaneous journey to Greece to find the pants that the girls fear have been the only thing keeping them together. But despite Sisterhood 2's many, many flaws and the way characters and stories are just inserted for distraction much like the beadwork, ink, and ornaments on their famous jeans, it’s still quite a welcome sight to see a film that can play to audiences of all ages. Not to mention, the bonus that it’s a feature film which portrays young women as intelligent and thoughtful as opposed to the media-perpetuated cliché they’re simply vacuous beings all just angling for credit cards and trips to the mall.
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!