Sex and the City - in my opinion

So it has been a week now since Sex and The City has been released in Belgium. I hope you all have seen the movie by now, so that I don't ruin your fun by revealing the movie plot.

(picture: imdb.com)

So, that's why you can read the review after the jump:
*spoiler alert*



Last wednesday evening both my sister and I had tickets for the premier at our local theater, during a so called 'Ladies Night'. When we arrived and saw the big screen, we noticed that 6 out of 10 screens would run the movie. We knew what that meant: hundreds of super excited women squealing and screaming over every close up of Mr. Big, Aiden or even a pair of high heels. We were right. During the lottery before the screening, the group of middle aged women sitting behind us gave approximately 3 rows of people a headache, by constantly yelling which item they wanted to win. -The gifts weren't that great: someone actually won a doormat, seriously. A doormat. My sister and I kept saying how we didn't want to win anything, no, certainly not the make-over and styling session by some dull little shop. In the end my sister won a bag, which was pretty okay.

In my thesis I write how fashion films (a sub genre of the women's film) are the ideal platform for product placement. Well, so are those ladies night. When my professor two days later asked me to describe the event, I answered: advertisement, advertisement and more advertisement. For a whole hour everyone in the theatre was subjected to big logo projections of every shop, wellness center and tour operator that sponsored the night. I was bored out of my mind. Everyone else seemed to enjoy the goodie bags filled with cheap samples of whatever.

So then finally the movie started -those middle aged women behind us still chitchatting during the whole opening scene about how none of them saw the first movie or even the series. When they finally shut up, I thought I and my party would be liberated of the constant nagging. I was wrong.

For about the whole first part of the movie, the 'girls' in SATC2 kept going on and on about their married life and how they have a dull and boring husband who would rather stay in at home once in a while and watch old movies in the bedroom. Or how their kids, more than other kids, drive them completely crazy and make a mess of the house. Well, if I wanted to hear about the everyday struggle of a household I would've joined my mum on a trip to her 'girl friends', who do exactly that: going on and on about how their husbands are the dullest in the world and their kids the messiest.

Thank goodness for good old fashioned escapism in Hollywood movies. The 'girls' leave for Abu Dhabi, where they are submerged by complete luxury. Every 'lady' in the room was in awe, ooh-ing and ah-ing with every new shot came on the big screen. "I want to ride in a Maybach as well" "No, I want to walk around in Dior-shoes in the desert!" Like the trip, the movie functions as a perfect escape for  'our boring, dull and messy household-every day life'. Only, I don't find my life to be boring, and my rocker boyfriend is never dull and I'm not even thinking about having some messy kids. So please, Hollywood, more real excitement please, and less boring people with non-existing issues like 'should my husband get 2-days off from our marriage?" The answer is no. THE END.

And then there's the whole deal with Aiden. The guy just proofed in the 'To Have Kids or To Not Have Kids, That's The Question?'-conversation earlier that he and Carrie are just two different people and not right for eachother and then they go off and kiss each other? Because Mr. Big brought home take-away food the other day, in stead of complaining about how his wife never cooks for him, that's reason enough for Carrie to kiss Aiden back? And then at the end of the film, Mr. Big is just okay with it 'as long as she promises to never kiss another man' and buys her a big diamond. They made up about something like that in 5 minutes while us, the audience, have to sit through two hours of nagging about everything else they do or don't do in their married life. What a bore! (And okay, in the series they had their problems as well but  those were rather funny and refreshing rather than being plain dull.)

Oh, and the critics are right you know, about how the movie portrays the middle east pejorative. At first I thought the film gave a positive message about Abu Dhabi. That it was kind of a promotion video on how much fun being a tourist in the country is. Yet, when Carrie said "We are not in Kansas anymore" I should've known. The actual message of the movie is: If you are a modern and emancipated woman, you should stay at home in Modernville, USA (think: 'Home is the best place to be'). The constant jokes about burkas, Mr. Lawrence of Samantha's Labia and his visible excitement, and gay marriages are just plain immature. And the karaoke-scene felt very much out of place by the way.

So if you want to see a 2 hours-movie about how Carrie looses her passport and gets it back in 5 minutes, and how Carrie kisses Aiden and makes up with Mr. Big in 5 minutes, go right ahead. I'll just stick to the SATC-series and be grateful for the fact that my boyfriend always said from day one that we won't ever get a TV-set in our bedroom... So maybe that will spare me from a life filled with nagging.

Although, this review has gotten a bit boring by now, no?

PS: Fashion-wise I got bored as well during the sequel. Very much over the top and not really wearable outfits make bad product placement. I did love Carrie's golden louboutins and Charlotte's pink Lady Dior-bag, but you all knew that months ago... So nothing new there either.

As I told my professor, 'ladies nights' apparently have a strange effect on 'the ladies', since most of them arrived all dressed up. I can't imagine any other film but SATC2 to have such an impact on picking out an outfit to just go and see a movie. Yet, one little tip: Leave your fake Louis Vuitton-bags at home next time.

And here's my sister's review of our night.