Review: Sex and the City The Movie

Carrie Bradshaw and Friends Return in a Film Version of the TV Show

Jan 19, 2009

After a four-year break, the Sex and the City cast are back in a feature-length version of the hit television series. Has anything changed since they have been away?

Four years after the successful HBO television series came to an end, Sex and the City’s leading ladies are back, but this time they are older, wiser and much more settled.

Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) still lives in Brooklyn with Steve and son Brady; Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is loving being a mother to adopted Chinese daughter Lily; and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) has moved in with the dreamy actor Smith Jerrod in Los Angeles.

And what about Carrie Bradshaw (played by the diminutive Sarah Jessica Parker)? Well, it finally appears as if her notorious on-again, off-again relationship with John James Preston, a.k.a. Mr. Big (Chris Noth), is finally on for good. The couple has decided to get married and live happily ever after in a fabulous New York penthouse.

Of course, there would not be a movie without some hitches in all this relationship bliss. And sure enough, the cracks soon start appearing in Miranda’s marriage. She moves back to Manhattan, taking Brady and the long-suffering nanny Magda with her.

On the West coast, Smith’s success, to a large extent a result of Samantha’s powerful PR machine, means he is hardly ever home, and Samantha finds that most of her sexual satisfaction these days is derived vicariously – by watching her virile neighbor through the balcony windows.

A Wedding but No Groom

Carrie’s wedding day arrives, along with the inevitable designer wedding dress. Mr. Big, however, does not. Through a series of miscommunications, mostly due to Carrie’s famed ineptitude with technology, she is left heartbroken and wondering if she will ever find her prince charming. The only member of the group who appears to be truly happy is Charlotte.

There are few elements that make this movie much more than an extended version of a television episode. Even the majority of the cast, with the exception of Carrie’s feisty assistant (Jennifer Hudson), is the same. Although the story just about stands up on its own as a self-contained, frothy romance, the movie is clearly aimed at Sex and the City fans and a large amount of pre-knowledge is assumed.

Taking the Sex out of the City

What is new in the movie is the different role sex plays. Or does not play, as there is far less of it: Miranda does not have time for it; Samantha would like more of it, but struggles with the idea of committing to just one man; and Carrie is not getting any at all, since she was abandoned at the altar. Once again, Charlotte seems to be only one having any luck in this department. Fashion also plays a smaller role, although there is the almost-obligatory reference to Manolo Blahnik.

So, with sex and fashion in the sidelines, what does the film offer that a night in with a stack of SATC DVDs does not? In short, little more than the opportunity for fans to spend two mildly entertaining hours being updated on four New York women who have grown up since we last saw them and now have decidedly less glamorous lives.

Sex and the City – The Movie is available from online retailers such as Amazon.com.

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