Still best friends, Tibby Tomko-Rollins (Amber Tamblyn), Lena Kaligaris (Alexis Bledel), Carmen Lowell (America Ferrera) and Bridget Vreeland (Blake Lively) are looking forward to their respective summers. Each of them has something of an adventure planned. Tibby needs to finish a harder then anticipated Romantic Comedy she’s writing for a class, Lena is trying to take her art to a higher level working with figure models, Bridget is going abroad to work on an archaeological dig and Carmen is venturing up to the wilds of Vermont to intern backstage at a prestigious camp for up and coming actors.

Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera and Blake Lively in Warner Bros' The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

But everything isn’t completely hunky-dory. While their commitment to one another refuses to waver, maintaining these friendships, even with a magical pair of pants that somehow fits all of them perfectly, is getting harder and harder with each passing day. All are facing new and profound problems confusing them to no end, this journey into young adulthood a lot more complex and, sometimes, depressingly emotional then they’d ever imagined it would be.

I was lukewarm to 2005’s The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. While I was more than satisfied with the four young ladies at its core (especially “Ugly Betty” and Real Women Have Curves star Ferrera), the film itself was a mixed back of turgidly overly familiar melodrama and hackneyed clichés grasping for a reason to even exist.

To say that I absolutely adored the unfortunately titled The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 isn’t just a stunning surprise, it’s also one of the more wonderful experiences I’ve had at the multiplex this year. I figured this movie was going to be trash, so to discover it to be both smartly entertaining and unexpectedly heartfelt really took my breath away.

It starts with the script. Working from the fourth chapter of Ann Brashares’ acclaimed series of young adult novels, writer Elizabeth Chandler (who also scripted the 2005 original) does a remarkable job of weaving so many divergent tales of angst, woe, femininity, sexual awakening, familial bonding and human inspiration into one cohesive narrative. While the movie has its share of ham-fisted dialogue and rushed exposition, overall the screenwriter handles her duties with refreshingly subtle flair. This movie is more like Chandler’s classic take on A Little Princess then it is anything else, her work so honest and genuine past duds like Someone Like You and What a Girl Wants almost fade from memory.

Not that the film is rocket science. Far from it, much of what happens (a pregnancy scare, some backstage backstabbing, a bit of female bonding and a whole lot of emotional growing up) not remotely unexpected. Even having never read any of Brashares’ books I knew exactly what was going to happen and where everything was going to end up, the predictable seaside happy ending as obvious as pink high heels on an overly made up Barbie Doll.

Yet the film is so well acted by the leads, so solidly directed by Sanaa Hamri (Something New) and so magnificently shot by veteran Jim Denault (Freedom Writers) I really don’t care that about any of that. The film evokes memories of old Hollywood melodrama classics like Peyton Place and Imitation of Life, the ruby red smile on my face when it was over so permanent one could almost accuse it of being plastic. 

In a Summer where so little has stood out from the crowd and so much has fallen well below expectation, to have a sequel no one in the right mind ever would have thought would have been made come out of nowhere and be this utterly entertaining just about blows my mind. Like I said earlier, I adored this film, at times loved it as much as anything else I’ve seen, and unlike a certain other tale of four women that came out back in May the saga of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is one I wouldn’t mind seeing continue. 

Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)

Additional Links

-  The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 Theatrical Trailer
-  The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Theatrical Trailer