By Ed Koch
“Sex and the City” (+) Not a first-rate movie, but for those like myself who tuned in every week to watch the show on HBO, which ran for six years, it is a must see.
The film focuses on the adventures of the same four gorgeous, stylish, intelligent and successful female friends. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) is proposed to by her longtime boyfriend, Mr. Big (Chris Noth). Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and her contrite husband for his unfaithfulness on one occasion, Steve (David Eigenberg), have a young son. The happy couple, Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and her husband Harry (Evan Handler), have an adopted Chinese daughter with a naturally-conceived daughter to follow. And, of course, there is the uninhibited and promiscuous Samantha (Kim Cattrall) who is living with her lover, Smith (Jason Lewis).
The reviews I read of the picture were overwhelmingly bad with one tabloid giving it only 1 ½ stars. In her Times review, Manohla Dargis referred to the movie as “a dumpy big-screen makeover,” and stated “A little Botox goes a long way in ‘Sex and the City,’ but a little decent writing would have gone even further.”
The electricity the women generated on the television screen does not come across in the film, and the jokes and below-the-belt remarks are only mediocre. The audience, however, made up of 90 percent women between the ages of 20 and 40, laughed at them as though on cue. Based on the comments I heard as I left the theater, the viewers seemed to enjoy the film, as did I, more for nostalgic reasons than for its art form. This film will become, I believe, a cult film like “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” with young women lining up at midnight to ogle at the fashion show and shout out lines of the script.
PT said: “Seeing this film is like visiting with old friends — I know all about the private and public lives of the four women characters, because I was an avid viewer of the TV series and now occasionally catch re-runs. The deep and enduring friendship portrayed by this circle of women is so real that any woman who values good friends can relate to it – and, perhaps, men can too. It’s not a perfect film – it winds up with facile happy endings for all, but it is certainly entertaining and worth seeing.”
