SEX AND THE CITY 2
US, 2010, 146 minutes, Colour.
Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristen Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall, Chris Noth, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler, Liza Minnelli, Penelope Cruz, Alice Eve, Max Ryan.
Directed by Michael Patrick King.
The main image that came to mind for reviewing Sex and the City 2 was that seeing it was like eating a couple of large slices of sponge cake, over-filled with cream and laden with lots of icing – maybe a treat at the start but, full of sugar, and ultimately not healthy for you. The moral unhealthiness for many could be gross envy of these four women from New York City who have no real experience of real life and have the money or the connections for them to be able to avoid it and stay fashionably dressed (with multi changes) while doing it.
But, for those who followed the lives of Carrie and her friends Miranda, Charlotte and the provocative Samantha, on TV over the years and enjoyed the first movie, no warning about how dangerous sponge cake can be for your blood sugar levels, is going to stop them rushing to see this sequel.
The four women, despite two of them having children, live an American dream, a designer lifestyle of capitalist consumerism. The first part of this film is also a fairy tale, a half an hour at a gay wedding, with such an overdose of camp in colour, clothes and music (a male choir singing songs from shows), arguments about being PC in talking about this topic, Sarah Jessica Parker arriving in tails to be 'best man' and then (yes, that can be capped, the officiating person turning up in the form of Liza Minnelli who, of course, does a song and dance routine that could become part of the drag queen repertoire).
Where to go after that? To some problems, Miranda being pushed around professionally and silenced by a chauvinistic boss; Charlotte concerned about the busty young Irish nanny looking after her girls; Carrie and Big sorting out marriage issues; and Samantha, just the same, mouthing all the vulgar lines with relish, concerned about sex and menopause.
Fortunately, for them, they have time out with a trip, all expenses paid, to Abu Dabi (filmed in Morocco) where they get to be insensitive American tourists, especially concerning dress and sex issues, although some burkha-clad Arab women show that they are just as Fifth Avenue conscious underneath the black (which means that the film is going to flop in Saudi Arabia, Iran etc, though thrive on women there pirating and downloading copies). Our heroines also do a karaoke Abu Dabi version of I Am Woman. (The rooms, meals, drinks, limousines and so on that they are treated to could probably save the borrowing debts of an impoverished country, say, Spain or Greece!)
Real life almost impinges but they get home, first class flight, and live happily ever after until the next sequel.
1. The popularity of the television series, the first film?
2. The audience appeal: women, men, the gay community?
3. The critics and their harshness on this film?
4. Audience knowledge or not of the series, its style, issues, characters?
5. The cast, the history of the series, the addition of Liza Minnelli, guests like Miley Cyrus? The musical score, the songs?
6. The New York City background, affluent, apartments, magazines, PR companies, the law, homes?
7. The contrast with Abu Dhabi, the luxury, the desert, the hotels, the limousines, clothes, planes?
8. A contemporary fairy tale, consumerist and capitalist fairy tale? The focus on the life, problems of the four women? Small but magnified? Reality versus fantasy?
9. The situations of the four women:
Carrie and Big, their life together, their marriage, each at work, at home, watching black and white television, the gift of the television, Carrie being upset, wanting jewellery, each wanting their own space, apart from each other, the effect of this, their discussions, socialising, Big not wanting to go out, the movie premiere and his reluctance, people hitting on him, Carrie and her bad review of her book, her views on marriage?
Miranda: her family, law practice, being talked over, leaving, finally working for a more humane company?
Charlotte: family, her crying kids, love for her husband, the nanny and her suspicions of her, her Irish background, the final revelation that she was lesbian? Jealousy and fantasy?
Samantha: men, with the best man at the wedding, with the actor, Smith? On the beach in Dubai? Her language and her jokes?
10. The gay friends, their marriage, the elaborate ceremony, their vows, fidelity and infidelity, Carrie as best man, the camp style, the massed choir, the songs from the shows, the design? Liza Minnelli as the officiator, her comments about the vows, her song-and-dance routine, everybody involved?
11. Samantha, the contacts with Abu Dhabi, the offer of PR work? Discussions, the trip? The decision to go, the women and their preparation? The lavish flight?
12. Abu Dhabi and the limousines, a waiter for each of them, the lavish hotel, fashions, outings, the shopping and the markets, the fake watches and the trouble with the dealers, Carrie losing her passport, recovering it, men and women in Abu Dhabi, the women being provocative, their fashions and dress? Sex on the beach? The karaoke and I Am Woman? Their being fobbed off, getting out of the hotel, lost in the market, the men pursuing them, finding the women, their black coverings, their fashionable New York clothes? Going home?
13. The women as American tourists, Miranda trying to use some of the language, aware of the customs, Samantha and her ignoring them completely? Offensive and insensitive?
14. The guest roles, Miley Cyrus and others at the premiere, Penelope Cruz, Liza Minnelli?
15. Samantha and her relationship with Spurt? Her future?
16. The resolution, the future of the women, Carrie and her stories, the change with Big, Charlotte and the happy family, Miranda and her new job?
