* An email from a friend reminded me why I wanted to write this. Otherwise, I may not have gotten around to it.

SPOILER ALERT: don’t read if you don’t want to be spoiled!

I’m a huge Sex and the City fan but something about seeing it in a movie theatre felt odd. Then my friend figured it out for me; we’re used to watching it in the privacy of our own homes whether it be alone or with guests. When I went to see the movie, I went alone and snuck into the theatre after the lights went down. I rushed out before the credits started because I didn’t want to see anyone. I wanted to see it and enjoy it alone.

After I saw the film, I finally started to read the reviews. There were the criticism I agreed with and expected: too long, where were the men’s voices, the point of the Louise character, and it was made for the fans. There were the good parts: the dramatic wedding scene, Carrie and Big doing anything, Carrie and Miranda hanging out, and other hijinks.

There was some interesting commentary about how the SATC ladies seemed to have made it financially. Carrie doesn’t have to worry about money anymore. Samantha, who never did worry about money, hits it big in Hollywood. Charlotte continues to spend, spend, spend. Miranda doesn’t consider the monetary complications of leaving her husband. Even the new character, Louise, while hints at not having much money and renting designer bags, never complains about how much $$ it takes to look stylish in the Big Apple. IS the SATC film mostly about class not relationships, sex, romance, or friendship? No but it certainly paints us a picture that everyone in NYC has the big bucks and if they don’t they are on their way to getting them.

I have a few complaints. (1) Where was Charlotte’s storyline? All she had to quibble with was how she was worried about running during her pregnancy! The audience didn’t even get to see Charlotte tell Harry that they were having a baby the old fashioned way. And why did she have to get pregnant? It didn’t seem necessary. (2) Miranda’s storyline was pretty stale and predictable. Steve cheats then she forgives him. That was it. It revealed nothing about her character except that she is bitter. (3) I did understand the BIG/Carrie storyline but in a way it felt like more of the same…what if she was the one “who couldn’t do it.” (4) The Louise character. Now I wasn’t expecting a big diatribe on race as a lot of other people wanted. BUT why would she come to the city to find romance just to move home once her ex came begging for her back? The whole point of the series was how much Carrie and her ladies loved NYC. They don’t compromise anything for their city. So why expect anything less of Louise?

But I did love most of it. It was only a movie after all but it was fun to see the outrageous clothes, money spent without thought, going out on the town. Miranda has the two most revealing sex scenes, and Samantha had none. I did thoroughly appreciate Samantha’s speech to Smith about how she loved herself more even though it wasn’t the “right” thing to say. That is the SATC I love, the one that questions how romance does work with a woman’s identity. I don’t think that SATC is a feminist show but I don’t think it is anti-feminist either.

Well, of course, all the ladies got their happy endings or variations of. It was well worth seeing it, but I don’t know what I think of another one. One just may be enough.