As you should know by now, I am not a fan of mainstream film. And certainly not THIS type of film. I’ve never been a fan of any film or book that has women basing their lives on finding men to marry. I prefer stories about women who’ve broken out of that stereotype. Or those that don’t have love and sex as the focus. But I thought I should review this film because I saw it (with my 17 year old niece) and thought it needed some commentary other than the breathy fawning that has appeared in way too many reviews.
There were parts of the HBO series that I liked but others that I didn’t. The film is the same except that the parts I liked, I liked more and the parts that I didn’t like, I truly hated. I thought that the movie was more realistic than the series, in that when Big leaves Carrie at the altar, she not only doesn’t instantly fall back into his arms after he apologizes, she also has a real, normal reaction to being dumped after ten years of a relationship. She gets very depressed and sleeps through several days. However, she DOES fly into his arms 6 months later, when she sees him at their apartment.
Charlotte is, as always, Charlotte, just as Miranda is true to character. Samantha is the only 50 year old woman on the planet who lives for sex. But what infuriated me was that they made a big deal about her gaining a couple of pounds as if she were morbidly obese. To tell you the truth, I didn’t know why the camera was focusing on her stomach until the accompanying dialogue told me. It was horrible to call her fat. Not only is Samantha not fat, but she’s also 50. The reality is that metabolism changes around 35 and no one is ever as thin as they were before that.
The worst part of the film is the x-rated sex scenes. When I see a film with an R rating, I expect some sex and/or violence, but this was over the top and I have to wonder how they managed to get the R rating. Samantha’s next door neighbor has sex with a different woman every day and Samantha watches, usually from a distance of less than 10 feet. We watch the neighbor as well, graphically screwing the latest girl, showering and undressing outdoors. I’m not saying that sex should not be in films. I’m saying that the rating system is there so that the public can decide what they want to watch. This film is a betrayal of that. In context, sex in film is fine but pornographic representations of sex is not. None of the sex in this film was tastefully represented. Add to this the oversexed dog and it equals a bad experience in film.
And I must say that I am really sick of Kim Catrall’s squinty-eyed sex face. And I am not looking forward to the sequel to this film and will probably not see it at all.
REPLETE WITH STINKIOSITY
