The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - Palm Beach Post movie review

'Sisterhood' offers you a walk in their ... shoes

Fervent readers of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ann Brashares' phenomenally popular young adult novel, have no doubt been waiting for the big-screen version since it hit bookstores in 2001.

Turns out that it's the movie that I, and a lot of women my age, have been waiting for since about 1985.

Warner Bros. Pictures

'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants'

The verdict: These Pants are a pretty good fit.

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

While '80s teen movie creators John Hughes, Cameron Crowe and their ilk got a lot right (the cliques, the parental alienation/adoration, the utter terror and occasional joy of high school romance), there's a lot that their witty pop culture-riffing nomads of the food court, weekend detention and the prom never got near.

Ken Kwapis' adaptation of Sisterhood isn't perfect, or what you'd call hyper-realistic — it's about a pair of magic jeans that somehow perfectly fit four best friends with extremely different body types. And y'all know that's fictional. But it gets closer to the terror and joy of being 16, and to the importance of friends that are your family, than anything made for their '80s counterparts.

And even though it's 20 years late, I'm really glad it's here.

Sisterhood's more than worthwhile for teenagers both current and former — the acting by leads Alexis Bledel, Blake Lively and especially Amber Tamblyn and America Ferrera, is sensitive, funny and wondrous, and the scenery, both of the landscape and human varieties, is primo. But wait! There's more!

It's a sister act. For some reason, there are oodles of movies about friendship among groups of adult women (Steel Magnolias, Waiting To Exhale ) and even middle schoolers (The Baby-Sitters Club). Molly Ringwald always had at least one friend her age in her John Hughes movies, but the only one anyone remembers was Duckie in Pretty In Pink, and he was a dude, who was not-so-secretly in love with her. And Ally Sheedy's weird girl in The Breakfast Club doesn't count because they knew each other for only, like, a day, and they probably never spoke again. How's that for a bond?

Mostly, any girl Molly's age was either the enemy or a peripheral, forgettable costar. But Sisterhood is closer to the sticky, sublime truth of teen girl tribery — shy, beautiful Lena (Bledel), blond, athletic, slightly hot-to-trot Bridget (Lively), snarky artiste filmmaker Tibby (Tamblyn) and sensitive writer Carmen (Ferrera) do not exist without each other, having been born to mothers in the same prenatal yoga class. When they separate for summer vacation, they pledge to send the magic pants to each other in their various temporary locations, to write each other, and to love each other and themselves.

The movie doesn't show the parasitic or cannibalistic side of teen girl friendships (I could tell you some stories) but there are arguments, tears and drama. All in all, it just seems real.

The parents also aren't Peanuts-style unseen adults who disappear and go "Mwa mwa mwa." Even though the girls of the Sisterhood are the stars of the show, their relationships with their parents, even those seldom seen, are pivotal.

Tibby's sourness is largely connected to feeling put out and second-best compared with the younger sister she has to baby-sit; Lena's Greek vacation romance is tested when her chosen hottie (Michael Rady) turns out to be related to her grandparents' sworn enemy; Bridget's chasing a too-old coach at her Mexican soccer camp partially to fill the void left by her mom's suicide and the distance between herself and her father; and Carmen is torn between her soon-to-marry dad (the always awesome Bradley Whitford), who seems a little too thrilled about the instant WASP-y blond stepfamily he's about to gain, and her Puerto Rican mom (Rachel Ticotin) who can't help but let her bitterness at being left influence her daughter.

Every relationship doesn't wrap up swimmingly. But they aren't ignored.

These types aren't stereotypes. Dig: Seemingly perfect Bridget isn't just a one-dimensional pretty slut who has to be taken down a peg so the more ordinary girls feel better about themselves. Shy, buttoned-up Lena isn't stereotypically unaware that she's a hottie; she's fully aware of that fact and scared to death of it.

Snarky Tibby's emotional softening comes not when somebody rinses the blue out of her hair and buys her a dress, but through a friendship with an annoying 12-year-old (Jenna Boyd), and curvy, ethnic Carmen actually gets to be in the movie.

Speaking of Carmen — THE CURVY ETHNIC GIRL GETS TO BE IN THE MOVIE!

Molly Ringwald now admits that she was disturbed that John Hughes movies were regrettably lily-white. And while this is the experience of folks in many parts of the country, a lot of us found our generation defined by films that either relegated anyone of our race (or class or body type) to second-banana or cruel joke status, or ignored us altogether. (Boo. Hiss.)

Sisterhood not only makes Carmen, played by the amazing America Ferrera, as big a character as her thinner Anglo counterparts, but it doesn't ignore the things that make her different from her friends. It just doesn't make them the reason she can't be close friends with them in the first place.

The best thing about Pants? It's something I'd take my teenaged daughters to, if I had them, and something I'll be seeing with my 20- and 30-something friends, who only dreamed of something this good when we were young. Daggone kids. They get everything.

The Flick Chick's Bottom Line: These Pants are a pretty good fit.