Review of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008) by Stephanie C — 20 Feb 2009

This film irritated me; I vaguely remember the first one as being more streamlined and cohesive. In this one, the characters are simply too unlikeable. Tibby is a jerk, Carmen is oblivious, Bridget is avoidant, and Lena is weirdly pinched and cold.

I'm sure this was intended to illustrate them overcoming hardships in life or something, but it didn't work. The idea of 4 characters in different places staying connected by a pair of pants worked very well in Brashares' book -- but it doesn't work well in a film.

You don't spend enough time with each character to get in their heads and care about what happens to them. As a result, the movie just seems disjointed, like a bunch of events slapped together. I don't buy the girls as being lifelong best friends at all.

Even if they became relative strangers due to miscommunications and time apart, they should not be so awkward and polite at times. I was not rooting for Kostas, by the way. He was totally the wrong choice for Lena.