DVD Review: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that characters deal with difficult
issues, including a parent's suicide, disease/death of a close
friend, a father's remarriage, seduction, and first time sex
(this last is indicated rather than depicted explicitly). The
film includes tense family scenes, with focus on reconciliation
after angry flare-ups. Characters use some mild language
(including "suck" and "ass") and drink.
- Families can talk about the film's depiction of loyalty and loss, especially as each of the girls loses something precious, but also gains experience and faith in herself and her best friends. How do you support your friends when they feel sad or angry? How can you be mad at someone but also, at the same time, still love him or her? How can loss also be an occasion for learning, sharing, and emotional maturation?
THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS follows four high school girl friends who separate for the summer and vow to keep in touch by way of a pair of blue jeans that magically fits all their different body sizes perfectly. They mail the jeans to one another, along with letters to keep up with what's happening in each other's lives. Lena (Alexis Bledel) is shy and quiet, on her way to Greece to visit relatives; aspiring documentary-maker Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) resents being stuck working at a local Wal-Mart-type store; golden girl Bridget (Blake Lively) is dealing with her mom's suicide and distant father as she heads to soccer camp in Mexico; and young writer Carmen (America Ferrera) goes to North Carolina to visit with her long-absent father, Al (Bradley Whitford), who announces he's about to marry Lydia (Nancy Travis), whose two blond teens seem complete opposites of Carmen. During their vacations, they explore their emerging sense of independence, while figuring out how to maintain relationships with their families and with each other, and each girl learns a valuable life lesson.
Based on Ann Brashares' novel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is sometimes sentimental and ultimately sensible, and it is respectful of its strong girl characters and its audience. The film introduces its protagonists as general types, but quickly grants them space to become interesting and complicated. The movie is about learning to appreciate what's in front of you as well as new experiences. But their most important lesson has to do with their mutual support and affection, which lasts over time.
Where too many movies treat a girl's losing her virginity as singularly traumatic or excessively romantic event, this one shows it as a difficult event from which she learns, recovers, and moves on. If its resolutions are at times too neat, the movie is also refreshingly frank, allowing the girls to be confused, perceptive, foolish, mad, and generous. Just like girls can be.
Real Women Have Curves
Saved!
Mystic Pizza
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
Join Us