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- First reviewMay 31, 2010
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Embarrassing and Vacuous!
PostedMay 31, 2010
Passionlessare
from Los Angeles
SPOILER ALERT!
The 4 soul mates of Sex and the City head to Abu Dahbi after Samantha is invited by a rich Shiek hoping to hire her as his hotel promoter. She wrangles a week of all expenses paid trip to this state in the United Arab Emirates for her, Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte.
Before they leave the country, though, we see how Carrie and Big have progressed through two years of marriage. Big still talks to Carrie like he's a character in a black and white film and Carrie finds scads of things to be bored of, despite the perfection of her life. There are approximately 600 full minutes of painful awkward sort-of arguing between the two of them about their marriage being without sparkle and whether its okay to watch tv and eat in at night.
Then we meet Charlotte's nanny. Of which, we see an approximately 600 full minutes of her braless breasts under thin tank tops. She doesn't notice the bra issue, of course, because that's so Charlotte to be okay with big huge see through boobs in her face all day, until Samantha points it out. Then Charlotte spends the whole trip to the UAE freaking about about her husband cheating.
Miranda's law firm has hired a partner who hates women and never lets Miranda speak. So Miranda quits. Naturally, when the women arrive in Abu Dahbi, Miranda's experience is poignantly juxtaposed against the birka clad women of the Middle East.
Just kidding. What the women actually do is sort of snicker about how birka's make it hard to eat french fries, talk about how the veil across the face makes it seem as if the culture encourages repression of women (a brilliant insight), and wander around Abu Dahbi in shoulderless dresses offending onlookers. Samantha eventually gets arrested for a public sexual display - kissing - and dismissed from the hotel owner as a potentail promoter. The film climaxes with Samantha in a public market, surrounded by men in white robes, picking up the condoms that have fallen out of her purse and screaming, "Yes, I have sex!"
I guess if the watchers of SATC are exceedingly stupid, this film might be the first time they consider existence in a fully masogynistic society, and maybe SATC is due some credit for expanding the experience of these women. But we've never been treated that stupid before by SATC. The handling of the issue of repression in a sophisticated and thoughtful manner is essentially nonexistent, and in fact, often devolved into slapstick.
At one point in the film, the women assemble in a side alley with a host of birka clad women, who then cast aside their birkas to show that, underneath, they wear Louis Vuitton and Prada. The Middle Eastern women exclaim, "We love fashion!" Carrie's voiceover sums up the experience with some senseless conclusion about how women around the world take age old traditions and tailor them to their modern version.
The entirety of the film is embarrassing and vacuous, without any of the irony of social elitism that SATC once had a sound grasp of (Charlotte's vintage skirt gets two kid sized handprints from her daughter in red ink and the film takes the whole thing completely seriously as Carrie says over the phone, I'm so sorry honey.) At one point, the women get up in an Abu Dahbi nightclub and sing I Am Woman. Samantha can be heard uttering lines like, "belly up to the bar girls" or, in response to the hot guy that appears out of the desert, "Mmmm, prince of my labia." Which might've been okay if the rest of the dorky one liners hadn't been laid on so painfully thick. My second least favorite scene (after the peekaboo fashion show under the birkas) was when the women go to the desert to ride camels and Miranda pulls out shopping bags filled with all new camel riding outfits for everyone. Such a shameful excuse for a costume change.
There was one really lovely scene, though. For whatever reason, Charlotte has a hard time admitting how difficult motherhood is (unlike Carrie, she tries to appreciate the very thing that she has finally gotten after years of yearning). Miranda sits her down, with cocktails, and they share the fears, guilt, and struggles of motherhood. It's sweet and funny and it works. Aside from that 5 minute scene, and when Big makes Carrie say vows at the very end, this movie's just a bunch of schmaltz. As if we all are so in love with SATC that we will just watch these women shop and giggle. As if we all said to ourselves, I love the SATC women and I wish I could see what it would look like if they all wore really great outfits on camels!
I almost love SATC that much. In fact, I am praying that SATC3 doesn't compound the guilt I feel of seeing SATC2, because I'll definitely be seeing it. Just, please! Writers of SATC3, go back to the series and try to remember what it's all about!
No, I do not recommend this movie.
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