THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS (Ken Kwapis). 119 minutes. For venues and times, see Movies, page 175. Rating: NNN Rating: NNN
Style magazines devote entire sections to jeans, promising legs like Cyd Charisse’s and a butt like J.Lo’s. So when four teens of varying shapes and sizes discover one pair that does that for all of them, it must be magic.
Carmen ( America Ferrera ), Lena ( Alexis Bledel ), Bridget ( Blake Lively ) and Tibby ( Amber Tamblyn ) are The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants , 16-year-old best buds spending their first summer apart, mailing the pants back and forth to stay in touch.
Sisterhood remains largely faithful to Ann Brashares ‘s novel: Carmen feels neglected by her dad (the yummy Bradley Whitford ) in South Carolina, Bridget falls in lust with her soccer coach in Mexico, Tibby stays home and meets a young leukemia victim. Only Lena’s Grecian holiday has changed: her relationship with local stud Kostos is threatened not by her own insecurity but by her grandparents’ disapproval. This makes Lena less interesting but the cute boy more alluring.
Ken Kwapis ‘s direction is uninspired, and the dialogue sticks too closely to the book’s interior monologues, leading into Velveeta territory. The stars are all good, though, and they aren’t Britney or Lindsey or the Olsens. With so many movies aimed at their male peers, it’s cool to see a decent tweeny-bopper movie for once.
Can the second coming of Molly Ringwald be far behind?
