Movie Review: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Rated by 3 members
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 who see this movie might discuss its 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?
Common Sense Media Review
Sometimes sentimental and ultimately sensible, this story of
four high school friends is respectful of its strong girl
characters and its audience. Based on Ann Brashares' novel, THE
SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS introduces its protagonists
as general types, but quickly grants them space to become
interesting and complicated, as they 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. During their
vacations, they explore their emerging sense of independence,
while figuring out how to maintain relationships with their
families and with each other.
Lena (Alexis Bledel) is shy and quiet, on her way to Greece to visit relatives for the summer; aspiring artist and documentary-maker Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) is grumpy and resentful, stuck working at a local Wal-Mart-type store for the summer; golden girl Bridget (Blake Lively) is still grieving over her mother's suicide and feeling distanced from her father (played by Blake's real life father, Ernie Lively) as she heads off to Mexico for soccer camp; and young writer Carmen (America Ferrera), who narrates the film, goes to North Carolina to visit with her long-absent father, Al (Bradley Whitford), who surprises her by announcing he is about to marry the very white, very Southern Lydia (Nancy Travis), whose two blond teens seem complete opposites of Carmen (her mother is played by the terrific and underused Rachel Ticotin).
Each girl learns a valuable lesson: Carmen is able to express her anger at her father for abandoning her as a child; Tibby becomes friends with 12-year-old Bailey (Jenna Boyd), who helps make her film by toting equipment and inviting subjects to speak openly and feel comfortable (as opposed to Tibby's typically surly, self-absorbed approach); Lena falls in love with a young Greek man (of whom her family disapproves because of a longstanding feud); and Bridget tries to alleviate her loneliness by pursuing one of her coaches, who is supposed to be "off limits" to players (her antics occasionally go overboard, as when she pours water on her t-shirt to get his attention).
The movie is about learning to appreciate what's in front of you as well as new experiences. One of the girls' friends notes her fear of "time" passing: "I'm afraid of time," she says, "not having enough of it. I'm afraid of what I'll miss." 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.
Families who like this movie might enjoy other movies about girls coming of age: Foxes (1980), America Ferrera's wonderful debut Real Women Have Curves, the edgier Saved! and the fabulously strange Dick (1999), or 1933's Little Women, starring Katharine Hepburn.
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
