Movie & Music

Fans of "Sex and the City" will find everything they loved about the TV series in the movie of the same name: four catty, chatty, fashion-forward women talking about the problems with the men in their lives, including copious amounts of shopping, dining, drinking and, yes, sex.
If, like me, you're not one of those fans, you may plan to steer clear of this movie. But if you are dragged to a screening by the "Sex and the City" fan in your life, the good news is that you will survive the experience - and maybe even have fun.
After a spirited opening-credits sequence in which he summarizes the series for novices, writer-director Michael Patrick King throws us back into the New York social swirl of newspaper columnist Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her gal-pals: brittle Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), wide-eyed Charlotte York-Goldenblatt (Kristen Davis) and, winging in frequently from L.A., sexually voracious Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall).
All four are paired up with men, though the relationships are not without problems: Miranda and her bartender husband, Steve (David Eigenberg), are in a sexual dry spell, while Samantha feels tied down to her actor-model boyfriend, Smith (Jason Lewis). Carrie's life with Mr. Big (Chris Noth), the source of much of her romantic angst during the series, is going along smoothly - until they decide, in an oddly businesslike manner, to get married.
What begins as a small wedding mushrooms into a Vogue-bankrolled circus (complete with a Vivienne Westwood wedding dress that has higher billing than half the cast). Without divulging major plot points, know that things unravel, leading to more commiseration, which for these women means more shopping, dining and drinking.
Fans of the show will lap up this stuff like a well-mixed cosmopolitan, while nonfans will get some hearty laughs, especially from Davis' dizzy Charlotte. But I couldn't help but wonder (as Carrie always says) how fans will avoid some nagging questions, such as:
- Why couldn't King make more of "Dreamgirls' " Jennifer Hudson, Carrie's can-do assistant and plus-size version of Carrie's younger self, than just a Human Plot Device?
- Why is product placement for Coca-Cola and Doritos considered whorish and tacky in other movies, but here the slathering of luxury brand names - Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, Oscar de le Renta, Dior, Gucci, etc. - is considered classy?
- Why is Carrie allowed to sport a look - wearing a bra with backless dresses - that would get you laughed out of most redneck bars?
- Why is this movie so darn long?
- Finally, was this bonbon to the show's fans, four years after the "happily ever after" series finale, really necessary?