Life after sex

>>Sex and the City, the movie, keeps
the franchise flame alive

GIRL TALK: Kristin Davis, Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon

by MARK SLUTSKY

The creators of Sex and the City know better than to mess with a good thing. Four years after their award-winning, hugely popular TV show ended, capping a run that, starting in 1998, helped make HBO a television force to be reckoned with (The Sopranos would debut a year later), they’ve brought back the franchise with Sex and the City: the movie version. And they’ve been smart enough to keep everything that made the original show such a hit intact.

One of the show’s major strengths was always in the writing, and how it managed to balance the weighty with the frivolous—and especially, how it managed to not always see the two as distinct from each other. Michael Patrick King, who wrote most of the series’ season openers and finales, is not only the sole credited writer here, but the director and producer as well, and he handles the franchise with care, making the transition to the big screen smoothly.

King opens the film a full four years after the series ended. Fans of the show, which pretty much means anyone who ever watched it, will be no doubt familiar with the way the show’s characters ended up, but in case your memory is faulty, he gives you a little catch-up.

Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), the show’s narrator and central character, ended up with her on-again, off-again paramour Mr. Big (Chris Noth). Samantha (Kim Cattrall), having survived cancer, moved to L.A. with her boyfriend Smith (Jason Lewis). Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) ended up in Brooklyn with a kid and loveable bartender Steve (David Eigenberg). And innocent, idealistic Charlotte (Kristin Davis) adopted a kid, went Jewish and found happiness with Harry (Evan Handler).

So basically, with the main narrative arc—four single girls looking for love in New York—more or less fulfilled, where is there to go from here? Sex and the City upends the show’s premise only very slightly, by shifting the focus to the trials and tribulations of having found love, rather than the pursuit of the ideal in the first place. It’s a very subtle shift, and one that allows the film to move the characters forward gracefully.

King seems happy to maintain the pace and style of the original show and thankfully avoids dropping in any super-cinematic plot or stylistic elements—you won’t see the gals on a hunt for ancient treasure or cavorting with a parade of guest stars. Basically, what you get is the original show, just more of it: more clothes, more conundrums of love and sex, more poignant friendship moments.

A lot more: compared with the average sub-30-minute episode, Sex and the City is about five times as long, clocking in at something like two hours and 20 minutes. Normally, I’d object to that kind of running time for what is essentially a light romantic comedy, but it works here. Most fans of the show have probably had the experience of renting the DVD box set and watching half a season in one sitting, and that’s pretty much what the movie feels like.

It obviously won’t win any new fans, but admirers of the show should be very happy to spend some more quality time with the ladies.

Sex and the City opens
this Friday, May 30

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