Half_the_Audience

So why does it p*ss off the boys so much? The much-beloved HBO series hits the big screens with an elongated nostalgic trip through the boutiques, restaurants, clubs, parties, and closets of our favorite foursome: Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha with Sex and the City— the Movie.

Some say it's critic-proof, others laud it as an "event" picture that says nothing indicative about whether "average" movies with female leads or female-driven stories can make money. While men and boys seem to feed at the trough of "average" or recycled fodder, the other half of the planet is a bit choosier and tends to wait until something special comes along.

Sex and the City: The Movie, is like the Sex and the City series on steroids. There's the fashion, the friendship, and most important, the emotional gravitas that the four main characters hooked us with so many years ago. For the uninitiated, there's a brief yet effective introductory montage which runs under the credits— just enough to get you acquainted.

Within minutes we're off and running through a veritable fantasy of the perfect man, the perfect dress, the perfect apartment— all the commodities capitalist media has conditioned women to love and want! Massive, unbridled, look-Ma-no-hands consumer-porn there for the viewing. Lest we let our envy get the best of us, each character is spun off into her own life-altering drama— interlaced themes of life underneath the labels— eventually resolved by the mystical power of sisterhood.

And it's more fun than you've had in years! Superficial? Only if YOU are. With a era-appropriate tinge of darkness, the R-rated film continues the daring investigation of female desire that the series began (a topic squeamishly avoided by most studios), and inventively juxtaposes it with a serious and mature debate on Romance vs. Practicality. There are some surprises, lots of laughs, and more than one occasion for tears. A little long at 148 minutes, we take journeys with all the characters as they negotiate expectations, desires, realities, and compromises. And aging. Oh yeah, and the dangers of the Cinderella Complex. Sex and the City is an "E" ticket ride through the grown-up girls' Gotham that does not disappoint— especially if you ever got the magic of the TV show in the first place.

Frankly, I can't wait 'til the senior installment! (Coming in 2028...)

Men may not understand why women like SATC so much, and that's okay. It's possible they could try to wrap their heads around the concept and attempt to see it from another perspective. Women have, for decades, learned to appreciate the avalanche of boy-comes-of-age stories, male-hero-conquers-the-world-tales, or man-in-midlife-crisis laments. Heck— they haven't been offered a choice of much else.

So while many girls and women will put up with their brother's, boyfriend's, husband's, or dad's choice of film, and enjoy it for what she can get out of it, she deserves an opportunity to lavish in female fantasy once in a while, without resentment, hostility, or undeserved criticism.

Perhaps if males were more discriminating, Hollywood would simply have to listen, and there would be an immediate improvement in the quality of films being made and distributed. But until that happens, occasional pleasures like Sex and the City, (movies about nice, normal, averagely-endowed women who permit themselves to do what they want, go where they want, and wear what they want, while enjoying their wildest fantasies), will come along and sweep the other half of the planet into the theaters. What a good time they'll have!