Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants [DVD] [2005] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

This is basically a story about four best friends spending a summer apart and doing a lot of growing up in the process. Oh, it's also about a pair of magical jeans. Don't get hung up on that, though; if there's one thing this book isn't, it's silly. It is instead a very rich and meaningful film about each character's maturation and growing understanding of the important things in life. This is not to say these girls are all ready to put away girlish things; the summer changes each of them, but they're still normal, healthy young people with their whole lives ahead of them – but they will be better able to appreciate the ups and downs their futures surely hold.

The girls themselves, lifelong friends, are very different. Lena (Alexis Bledel) is shy and reserved, Carmen (America Ferrera) is down-to-earth but a little bit of an outsider, Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) is rather negative and rebellious, and Bridget (Blake Lively) is a boy-crazy blonde who looks and acts 25. On their last day together before parting ways for the summer, the girls discover an amazing pair of jeans that impossibly fits each of their very different bodies perfectly. The only logical explanation is a magical one, so the girls vow to share the jeans over the summer and report back on the great strokes of luck the jeans will surely bring them. Lena gets them first because she is on her way across the world to Greece to stay with her grandparents. From there they go back to Tibby, who is stuck at home working on a documentary in betweens shifts at a retail store. Then they're off to Carmen in South Carolina, whose visit with her dad turns in to quite an ordeal. Last up is Bridget, who is attending a soccer camp south of the border. Each girl expects something wonderful to happen once she slips on the special jeans. Instead, the jeans seem to do more harm than good.

Lena meets a young man who expands her horizons and begins to free of her inhibitions, only to be told to stay away from him. Tibby finds herself saddled with a younger girl named Bailey (Jenna Boyd) who insinuates herself right into her whole documentary project. Carmen feels like a total outsider around her dad and the new family he is about to marry into, and Bridget's shameless pursuit of an older boy ends up opening deep hurts she has tried to pretend don't exist. So much for the magic jeans – but let's not be so hasty. Seeds have been sown, and each girl eventually does experience a bit of magic that transforms them and, in the end, brings them closer together.

This is a story of laughter, tears, and emotional growth. The film offers up many poignant moments, especially in terms of Tibby's summer experience, and it does a marvelous job of transitioning from one story to the next. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is just a real winner, a marvelously impressive film that speaks not only to teenaged girls but to all of us who allow the movie into our hearts and minds. It deals with some pretty major themes in both straightforward and effectively subtle ways, and all of the girls turn in wonderful performances. Forget about the magical jeans (they're just a metaphor, you know); this movie is all about real life, friendship, and growing up. Anyone with a heart should be touched in some way by this film. I for one loved it.

They came upon a pair of pants
And tried them on for size
But when it fit despite their "can't"s
They'd not believed their eyes

To share the magic of their find
Ten rules they each did swear
One week the pants to each to mind
Then to the next to wear

In print it is a wondrous tale
Of girls and friends and fate
The movie loses some detail
But still remains first rate

Mostly faithful to the book
With a slightly offbeat cast
Amber Tamblyn's off tha hook
And Jenna Boyd's a blast

A must for every teenage girl
Who ever had best friends
Be sure to give this film a whirl
Where friendship never ends

Amanda Richards, October 22, 2005

They came upon a pair of pants
And tried them on for size
But when it fit despite their "can't"s
They'd not believed their eyes

To share the magic of their find
Ten rules they each did swear
One week the pants to each to mind
Then to the next to wear

In print it is a wondrous tale
Of girls and friends and fate
The movie loses some detail
But still remains first rate

Mostly faithful to the book
With a slightly offbeat cast
Amber Tamblyn's off tha hook
And Jenna Boyd's a blast

A must for every teenage girl
Who ever had best friends
Be sure to give this film a whirl
Where friendship never ends

Amanda Richards