Movie Reviews

the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants

2 July 2005

With a title like The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, this film should be at least remotely unusual. But while it has a novel concept (magic jeans!), this is for a teen audience too young even to remember the clichés from all those late-1990s coming-of-age flicks.

            Based on the first of series of novels by Ann Brashares, it’s about four inseparable young friends who are about to suffer a terrible misfortune: they are spending their summer apart. Strong bonds can develop between adolescent girls, and it’s a difficult time, so … oh for heaven’s sake, get over it! 

            Happily, they don’t need to take my advice. They find a way to keep their rather obsessive connection, through a pair of jeans that magically fits all their figures. They each agree to wear these jeans for part of the summer period, then FedEx them to the next person. I guess girls do that sort of thing. My younger sister used to partake in such rituals with her friends… or at least, she would have if it wasn’t such a silly idea.

            The “sisterhood” is a diverse bunch of stereotypes. Tibby (Amber Tamblyn, from Joan of Arcadia) is the witty one with the attitude. Lena (The Gilmore Girls’ Alexis Bledel) is the pretty but shy one. Carmen (the excellent America Ferrera), who also narrates the film, is the Hispanic outsider from a broken home. Bridget (newcomer Blake Lively) is the athletic, blonde spunk. The magic is not just in the jeans, but in the fact that this quartet could ever make friends with each other.

            But the pants enhance the magic, giving each wearer a happy resolution to her personal (and sorry to repeat, cliché-ridden) story. The four young actors all do a sterling job, and Ken Kwapis’ direction seems desperate to ensure that it doesn’t irritate those guys who are dragged along to the cinema by their girlfriends. Sadly, this tale of friendship is smothering rather than touching.

            Of course, this cynical reviewer couldn’t possibly appreciate the deep bonds of female friendship, but the girls I knew at school never seemed quite like this. With all due respect, I’ve seen other films about female teenagers that seem more realistic. Mean Girls, for example.