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'Traveling Pants' Loses Some Magic In Sequel

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By CHRISTY LEMIRE

The Associated Press

Published: August 6, 2008

Updated: 08/06/2008 06:55 pm

Yes, the pants still exist, but now they're covered in patches and jewels and etched with the memories and dreams of the four young women who've been wearing them. And they still travel - to New York and Vermont, Turkey and Greece, and various points in between.

But the magic in those jeans, and in the bond that linked the friends who've shared them over the years, seems to have faded in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2."

The sequel to 2005's surprisingly tolerable "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" finds our eclectic group of heroines a little bit older and wiser and a lot less connected, despite the promise they made to ship the jeans to each other along with a note containing the juicy details of their latest adventures. Now, they barely have time to dash off an e-mail saying hi.

Makes sense that they'd go off to college and begin forming separate lives, but the film from director Sanaa Hamri ("Something New"), taking over for Ken Kwapis, feels disjointed, too. It bounces from one girl's story line to another's without much tonal cohesion, and it doesn't help that the situations the characters find themselves in are often soapy and contrived.

And because they spend so little time talking, laughing and bonding, it depletes the sequel of much of the original's spark.

Part of the allure of the first film came from watching these women support each other no matter what, in a way that was real and believable without feeling too treacly.

One consistency remains, though: America Ferrera pretty much steals the whole movie out from under her co-stars as the quick-witted Carmen, who's now studying drama at Yale. Ferrera is an actress with a likable, accessible presence who always makes her performances look effortless.

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Tragic Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) is at NYU film school and, somewhere along the way, transformed herself into a goth version of Liza Minnelli.

Gorgeous tomboy Bridget (Blake Lively) is playing soccer at Brown and still struggling to heal from her mother's suicide.

And quiet Lena (Alexis Bledel) is an art student at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Stuff happens, feelings are hurt, boys dramatically enter and leave their lives and major problems wrap up a bit too neatly, especially at the picturesque ending.

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MOVIE REVIEW

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 **

MOVIE BOARD RATING: PG-13; mature material and sensuality

STARS: Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, Blake Lively and Amber Tamblyn
DIRECTOR: Sanaa Hamri

LOCATION: See movie times, Page 8, for local showtimes.

PLOT SUMMARY: Four women overcome obstacles with support from each other and a mystical pair of jeans.

RUNNING TIME: 111 minutes

ON THE WEB: sisterhood ofthetravelingpants2 .warnerbros.com/

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