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'Traveling Pants' fits audience just right

With the light-saber antics of Revenge of the Sith and the boxing brutality of Cinderella Man satisfying male tastes at the multiplex, Warner Brothers takes aim at preteen girls with a sugary tale of bonding and coming-of-age, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Based on the first of three message-laden novels by Ann Brashares which apparently are very popular with the target demographic, this is a fable of four close friends connected by a shared pair of jeans that miraculously fits them all.

Warner Bros. Pictures 'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' B The verdict: Preteen girls are the target for this lesson-laden coming-of-age tale with four up-and-coming young actresses. Director: Ken Kwapis Starring: Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, Blake Lively, America Ferrera Run time: 121 minutes Release date: June 1, 2005 Rating: PG for thematic elements, some sensuality and language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Pants aims to please the book's fans and should probably create some new followers of the series.

OK, I'll admit I'd never heard of the novels, but the film's four young actresses are very likable and the location shots of the wondrous Greek island of Santorini make an atmospheric travelogue.

The daughters of four women who all gave birth within a week's time —introverted Lena (Alexis Bledel of TV's The Gilmore Girls), goth videographer Tibby (Amber Tamblyn, Joan of Arcadia), emotionally fragile Carmen (America Ferrera, Real Women Have Curves) and sexual predator Bridget (Blake Lively) — separate for the summer between their junior and senior year of high school.

They remain connected, however, by those elastic jeans, which they each wear for a week and then mail on to the next girl in rotation. Together they make up rules governing the pants, deciding they convey courage and other powers, or perhaps they simply bring out qualities that were always present in the girls.

Director Ken Kwapis (He Said, She Said) juggles all four plot lines efficiently.

The only regret is that the story structure requires the four actresses — who have an appealing group chemistry — to be separated for most of the movie.

Lena is the one who is Santorini-bound, staying with her overly protective grandparents, but becoming romantically entwined with a local boy whose family is feuding with Lena's, a Romeo & Juliet knock-off. Hispanic Carmen heads to the Midwest to reunite with her estranged, divorced dad (The West Wing's Bradley Whitford), but did not expect a tug-of-war over him with his fiancee and her white-bread children.

Blonde, leggy Bridget jets off to Baja, Mexico, to a soccer camp, determined to lose her virginity to a cute counselor.

And in the most maudlin of the plots, Tibby stays home in Bethesda, Md. — played by Vancouver, Canada — to work at a big-box discount store and make what she calls a "suckumentary" about working conditions there. She quickly acquires a pushy 12-year-old assistant, Bailey (Jenna Boyd), and feels rotten about being rude to her when she learns the kid has a terminal disease.

Screenwriters Delia Ephron and Elizabeth Chandler see to it that each young actress gets a standout dramatic scene, after which her conflict gets tidily disposed of.

Chances are moviegoing Sisterhood members will not mind the Afterschool Special aspects of the four-pronged narrative.

Anyone who does can while away the time enjoying the bleached white facades and charm-laden streets of Santorini.