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Filmmaker knows his audience
The film picks up a few years after the end of the TV series.
Keep your lover close.
Keep your girlfriends closer.
That was always the underlying message of TV’s “Sex and the City” and it’s the glue that holds together the new spinoff movie as well.
Once again we are plunged into the fashion-conscious, appealingly neurotic world of Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha — women who know that when men disappoint them they can always count on each another.
And there’s no shortage of disappointment facing the ladies this time around.
The film picks up a few years after the end of the TV series. Romance columnist Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her Mr. Big (Chris Noth) are so secure in their relationship that they set the big date. This gives Carrie a chance to try on all sorts of wedding dresses. (Cue the designer montage.)
Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and husband Steve (David Eigenberg) are deep into Brooklyn domesticity — so much so that they haven’t had sex in six months. Hmmmm ...
Sexpot Samantha (Kim Cattrall) is in Hollywood running the acting career of her hunky boytoy Smith (Jason Lewis). He’s devoted to her, but Samantha — who is, let’s face it, essentially a frat boy with breasts — is starting to find the arrangement too confining.
That leaves the adorably ditzy Charlotte (Kristin Davis), content in connubial bliss with her adoring chrome-domed Harry (Evan Handler) and their adorable adopted daughter. They’re just really ... adorable.
Of course it can’t go on like this or there would be no movie. And so writer/director Michael Patrick King tosses a variety of relationship grenades into our ladies’ paths. No point in giving away any of the specifics here.
Suffice it to say that the first hour ends with a major trauma and the four galpals retreating to a Mexican resort for the funniest 10 minutes of the film, culminating with an intestinal incident (memo to self: don’t drink the tap water) involving the prim and proper Charlotte.
It’s good to be back in the presence of these fascinating women. It would be better if King had fashioned a more interesting vehicle for them.
Because aside from a couple of plot developments, this movie never surprises. It plays exactly like an episode of the series — which would be fine if the movie ran for 30 minutes.
But it runs for 2 hours and 30 minutes, spreading out its laughs way too thin to turn around the suffocatingly melancholy tone. Thank heaven for Cattrall, whose tart-tongued delivery turns almost anything she says into comic gold.
The other three divas aren’t nearly as entertaining and, in fact, get a bit wearisome.
The men in their lives barely register.
“Dreamgirls’ “ Jennifer Houston shows up halfway through as Carrie’s new Girl Friday — she’s fine but it’s an underwritten part.
So here’s the bottom line: If you loved “Sex” as a TV show, you’ll want to check out the film because it’s like attending a class reunion. It’s a chance to catch up with people who meant a lot to us.
And if you didn’t watch the TV show, you’ll probably watch this movie and wonder what all the fuss was about.