Review: 'Sex and the City'

Rating:

BY GENE SEYMOUR | Special to Newsday

May 25, 2008

One of the few things you may have heard in advance about the long-awaited, already-buzzed-over-to-death movie version of "Sex and the City" is that it runs roughly two hours longer than an average episode of the HBO series. This much, we're allowed to disclose, is true.

We can also say that its length doesn't make the movie an overlong "Sex and the City" episode so much as an overlong string of episodes chronicling several major, often traumatic shifts in the lives of Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her three best friends, roving-eyed Samantha (Kim Cattrall), gimlet-eyed Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and dewy-eyed Charlotte (Kristin Davis). (It must be said here that through the sluggish tread of bruised emotions and melodramatic hiccups, the quartet clicks as well as it ever did, collectively and individually.)

What we're not allowed to disclose are specific "surprises" - none of which, really, will be all that surprising to those who've watched every episode of the original series. A pregnancy, a separation and homemade sushi are among the juicier tidbits involved here - and this may be telling you more than we're supposed to. Then again, if you're a devoted fan, you probably already know more than we're telling.

Watching these changes unfold over 2 1/2 hours (have we mentioned yet that it's overlong?) is a lot different from, say, watching several "SATC" episodes on DVD in succession as if gobbling fudge brownies. That may be OK for the living room, but in a multiplex, you just want things to move along already. In all honesty, some of us would have been OK with a 90-minute pastiche of the fab four hurling quips and intimacies at each other over brunch. Sort of like "My Dinner With Andre," only with brighter lighting and more lip gloss. What would have been so wrong with that?

SEX AND THE CITY: HBO's fearsome foursome of femme friends ( Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis) get such a big-screen close-up that it's borderline-bleary to watch. Whether you mind this or not will depend on how much you loved hanging out with them in your living rooms. With Chris Noth, Jennifer Hudson, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler and Smith Jerrod. Written and directed by Michael Patrick King. 2:25. Nudity, vulgarities, racy subject matter. Opens Friday at area theaters, with some midnight screenings late Thursday/early Friday.