Sex and the City 2 **

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks (or never go to the cinema or watch television – unlikely if you’re actually reading this review), you will be well aware that the girls of television series Sex and the City are back for a second cinematic outing after their hugely successful 2008 movie. Whether or not you will actually care though will probably depend on your gender. A chick flick in probably the purest definition of the term, Sex and the City 2 is a film that is aimed squarely at the female audience and that really has little to offer the boyfriends unfortunate enough to get dragged along to it. (But, hey guys, you can always try and talk your girlfriends into letting you see The Losers while they see this – now, that will be your kind of movie). Anyway, back to Sex and the City 2. There has been a fair amount of discussion, although surprisingly little controversy, surrounding the decision to have the girls leave New York and head to Abu Dhabi for this sequel – surprising, given that Abu Dhabi is located in the United Arab Emirates, a country known for its gross violations of the rights of women (not exactly an ideal setting for a film whose target audience is strong and independent women) and whose government actually refused the filmmaking team permission to film there after reviewing the script, forcing filming to actually take place in Morocco. One of the taglines for the film reads “You can take the girls out of the city but you can’t take the city out of the girls” but can you take girls out of the city without alienating Sex and the City‘s core audience? This critic thinks perhaps not.

Two years have passed since Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) finally bagged John “Mr. Big” Preston (Chris Noth), the man she was always meant to be with. Just as her friend Charlotte (Kristin Davis) must deal with her young daughter’s “terrible two’s”, Carrie must deal with her relationship taking a turn for the worse – Big likes to watch old black-and-white movies on TV and eat take-out food, which prevents Carrie from feeling like the free-wheeling party girl she used to be. Meanwhile, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) struggles to cope with a new boss that can’t handle an intelligent, powerful woman, and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) works a public relations angle that gets the fashionable foursome an all-expense-paid trip to Abu Dhabi, a trip that sees Carrie encountering an old love in the form of Aidan Shaw (John Corbett), Samantha running afoul of the law when she takes a liking to the hunky Rikard Spirit (Max Ryan), Miranda learning how to be fun once again and Charlotte rediscovering her old care free self.

From start to finish, Sex and the City 2 is a film that is 100% pure feminine chic, so obviously I am not in the target audience. In fact, to accompanying boyfriends this film may well be akin to torture. This review will be mostly from a guy’s perspective, although I will do my very best to be objective. This film starts off strongly enough. We are swiftly reintroduced to the city of New York and our four main characters through the voiceover narration of Carrie Bradshaw – voiceover that guides us through the story of the whole film – and some brief but well done flashbacks showing how the four friends originally met one another. Everyone – girls and guys – falls right back into their roles with the greatest of ease and the performances are, without question, strong all round with Parker, Davis, Nixon and Cattrall all being superb and being ably backed up by the men – Noth, Corbett and Ryan as well as David Eigenberg and Evan Handler. There are also a couple of memorable cameo appearances, both of which could rate among some of the best cameos ever, firstly from Liza Minnelli in the film’s gay wedding scene at the start of the film where she performs a rendition of ‘Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)’, and secondly from Miley Cyrus during the scene where the four girls attend a gala film premiere, only to find that Cyrus is wearing the exact same dress as Samantha. The friendship dynamic between the four leads absolutely convinces, and the same is true of their relationships with their romantic partners. And while the story remains based in New York City, the film is very strong on many levels. There is a genuine sense of class in everything that happens, the glamour and sophistication of the first film being present once again. This is not your typical Hollywood romantic comedy with a fairy tale view of romance but rather a reflection of the cold, hard truth about marriage and having a family – there are downs as well as ups. The characters all have real life issues and problems to deal with and the manner in which the film portrays this is realistic and convincing, each of the girls essentially representing a different lifestyle and the problems that come with it. Because of this, the characters are relatable to the target audience and this is something that will enable the core audience – i.e. women – to empathise with and understand the characters and it is from this empathy and understanding that the humour (targeted exclusively at women) emerges and – based on the hysterical laughter coming from the women in the screening I was at – women will find this film hilarious, the honesty at the film’s core being truly refreshing, especially when compared with some of the rubbish in recent Hollywood romcoms. While the setting is New York City, the film is very successful. The film takes a major wrong turn, however, when events move to Abu Dhabi (it’s ‘Sex and the City’ not ‘Sex and the Desert’), the decision to have the girls go there being a very misjudged one that sucks a lot of the class right out of the film. Once the girls get there, anything resembling realism and relatability goes right out the window, in its place ridiculousness and absurdity, not to mention a strong feeling of phoney – which, technically, it is, as it not actually shot in Abu Dhabi. And things only get more ridiculous at the film progresses towards its conclusion. Additionally, when the story sees Samantha getting arrested as a result of her repeated flouting of the Abu Dhabi’s decency laws, it seems like an attempt is being made at not so subtle social commentary but rather than delve into any of the issues surrounding key issues relating to the laws of the United Arab Emirates, the situation is quickly resolved and the issues made light of. It seems that the reason Abu Dhabi was chosen as a setting is because of the glamour and sophistication that it attempts to portray, ignorant of the bad side they don’t want the world to see and that also isn’t shown here, at least not without being glamourised as well. Sex and the City really does not need to do social commentary such as what it half heartedly attempts to do here and based on the evidence it really shouldn’t do. So, while Sex and the City 2 is a film that many women will no doubt get much enjoyment out of, particularly those partial to men taking their shirts off, the overall result is a very mixed bag. The scenes set in New York City are generally very good but when the action moves to Abu Dhabi things really do not work. Unfortunately, when you in add in an overlong running time that sees the film really outstay its welcome, the bad ends up outweighing the good that there is to be found in this film. You can take the girls out of the city but based on this film you really shouldn’t.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

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