Forgotten Films: The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants (2005)
Posted by Tony Farinella on 12.02.2006
Alexis Bledel caused this Forgotten Film column. Read on to find out why!
I hate to get corny and cheesy on everyone here, but bygod I love doing this column every week. I really do. It is always fun to go through my massive DVD collection and find some old film to re-watch and review for my column. The fun part is I usually don't know what film I'm going to re-watch until Wednesday night. I'll watch it Wednesday night and I type it up Thursday to have it up for the Saturday deadline. The film I pick usually has some sort of story behind it or it comes up in a weird way during the week. The films truly just come to me out of the blue and they fit like a glove. I was waiting to see Snakes On A Plane and I found Can't Hardly Wait in the bargain bin and I got the idea to review that movie. I was up late watching TBS and She's All That came on and I decided it was perfect to review that movie. Now it is time for the story of how I got the idea to review The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants for my Forgotten Films column this week.
Monday Night I was pretty down after the Packers lost a game they should have won against the Seahawks and I went to bed right after the game to sleep it off. I kept tossing and turning in my bed and going over the game and things we should have done to win it. I take the Packers seriously and they are my second favorite thing in the world with the exception being film and TV. I was in the middle of a lengthy snooze and I had a dream about Alexis Bledel. Before any of you perverts ask, it was not dirty. The lights went out at my house during the Packers game and I was annoyed and she comforted me in the dark. We stayed up all night and chatted about life and shared stories and secrets. It was romantic and enjoyable. Then the worst part of the dream, it ends. You wake up and you realize it was all a dream. It felt so damn real though. I was depressed the rest of the day after this dream.
The lights went out earlier this year during a Packers game on Monday Night against the Eagles, which made the dream feel even more real. That is why the dream was so real and eerie. Only last time when the power went out, I had my 58-year-old father in his underwear with a flashlight. I didn't have Alexis to comfort me.
I was then trying to figure out what this dream meant and what to do with it. First of all, it was bizarre how the dream felt so real and lifelike. I thought the dream meant one of two things. It could have been because I had just finished watching Gilmore Girls on DVD since Target had a Gilmore Girls DVD sale with the set for $14.88 and Rory was fresh in my mind. The second and more logical answer is that it was someone telling me I had to review a film with Alexis Bledel in it for my column. She was speaking to me through the dream and asking for a review. Alexis is mostly noted for Gilmore Girls, but she did have a role in Sin City back in the spring of 2005. I wouldn't exactly call Sin City a Forgotten Film though. I couldn't review Gilmore Girls since that is a TV show and not a movie. Finally, I found The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in my DVD collection right behind Hostel and Jackie Brown.
You can find it all in the Tony F. DVD collection.
You can call me what you will, but I'm a sucker for a good cry. I have a high tolerance for sad and slow movies. I think you learn a lot more from a good tragedy and overcoming it than you do from an action flick. That is why my favorite film of all time is Midnight Cowboy. I have always been interested in films that make me go through all of my emotions during the 2 hour running time. A film that makes me cry, smile, laugh, think, and leaves me drained after it ends. One of the best teen films that made me do all of the above was 2005's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which featured a great cast of young, vibrant, and hip teens with a lot to say. This is the kind of film that actresses like Lindsay Lohan or Hilary Duff only wish they could be apart of it. It gave a nice representation of a teen world that is usually fodder for bad jokes and unoriginal characters.
Let's go back in time and look at a lot of other films which centered around the female relationship yet failed miserably. 2002's The Sweetest Thing with Cameron Diaz, Christina Applegate, and Selma Blair proved that girls can be just as disgusting, vulgar, and ugly as guys when they write a comedy. If you don't believe me, all you have to do is listen to the penis song in the movie. Don't ask! Another 2002 film which featured girl relationships was Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, which was too heavy handed and emotional for my liking. Don't make me bring up the dreadful HBO show Sex and the City, which gave women an excuse to be slutty, mess around, and unfaithful. If you have seen any of the films mentioned above, you know why I'm happily single and proud of it. The best film which fully grasped and understood the complex nature of female friendship was The Sisterhood Of the Traveling Pants. It was based on Ann Brashares' best-selling novel of the same name. I have not read the book series, so I won't get into the whole book is better than the movie deal.
We open up our story following four teenage girls who are about to embark on their first summer away from each other since birth. The only thing keeping them together is a pair of secondhand jeans they picked up at the thrift store. The magical pair of pants fits all of them even though all four of the girls come in all different shapes and sizes. They vow to take turns wearing the pants for a week and document what occurs to each girl while wearing the pair of pants. They also have ten rules that go along with the jeans and you cannot wash them under any circumstances. If you wash them, you will lose the magic of the pants. The first girl to get the pants is Lena (Alexis Bledel), who is a shy wallflower unaware of the beauty she posses. She is going to Greece to work on her art and to connect with about a million relatives. While in Greece, she meets a hunky fisherman who is trying to get her to come out of her shell. But little does she know, her grandparents have a rivalry with his grandparents about some old fish.
Another story follows Tibby (Amber Tamblyn), a rebel filmmaker, who often spews forth hatred for the world and everything about it. She is stuck for the summer working at a second-rate Walmart with a weasel faced boss who gets on her nerves often. She must also babysit daily for her mother and a boatload of children while her mother works. When she is not babysitting, working, or yelling at the world, she makes time to work on her film. Her film shows off losers in all their glory either playing video games, working at Walmart, or selling lemonade. While working, she runs into a spark-plug named Bailey (Jenna Boyd), a young girl with cancer who wants to live out every moment in life as if it is her last. Tibby and Bailey form a love-hate relationship while working on the film, but I think it's mostly love. Bailey hopes to show Tibby that the world is not all that bad and there is a lot of beauty around us.
We also follow Bridget (Blake Lively), who is full of energy and spunk and about to embark to Mexico for a soccer camp. She is also dealing with the loss of her mother and trying her to best not to think about it. Her approach in life is to move as fast as possible and not to slow down, so she doesn't have to deal with the pain. She throws herself onto Eric, a soccer coach, and hopes to find some happiness with him. She soon finds out she must come to terms with her problems and can't hide them in some cheap fling with the soccer camp hunk. The last story is the most interesting as we follow Carmen (America Ferrera), who is visiting her father in South Carolina and finds out some shocking news about him. He is in a new relationship with a woman who has two kids of her own. She must find a way to not only connect with her father, but to fit in with his new family.
The great thing about Sisterhood is the how the film knows how to pace each story properly and it never stays with one story for too long. All of the stories get ample time and room to breath and plenty of attention. As soon as you are wondering what is going on with Carmen, they take you there. If the film focused on just one story, it would become overdone, tedious, and tiresome. But you get to care about each girl individually and her problems. Each story is also different from the other and each girl is dealing with a real conflict that you can relate to and understand. No one is worried about some stupid prom or something silly. They are dealing with death, love, regret, hope, and a lot of stuff we all deal with. You really root for each girl and you get to know them and care for them. Time spent with each girl is time well spent. It never turns into an ABC after-school special either. All of the emotional moments are sincere, honest, authentic, and true to life. This is a film for teenage girls to be proud of. It shows girls as being challenging, interesting, different, complex, fun, and worthwhile. It shows that not all girls are dumb, lazy, shallow, close-minded, and uninteresting.
The acting by everyone involved is some of the best work by young teen actresses I have seen in the past decade. The stand out is America Ferrera, who shows so much emotion and vulnerability in her face as she deals with her father and his new family. She is definitely someone to keep your eye on in the future. Blake Lively does a good job essentially playing herself. She's a spunky blond who never has a shortage of energy to keep the party going. Amber Tamblyn is also sharp with her sarcasm and her teenage angst against everything in the world. She still is able to make the character likable and fun to be around. She is more of the realist of the group with her views on everything. Lastly, Alexis Bledel as Lena is pitch perfect casting as she gets across the shyness and innocence of the character with her eyes that light up any room. The scenes with her and the fisherman are extremely romantic and they show off all the beauty of the sea and Greece. Each girl in the movie has a lot going on within themselves. They are all different from each other and not some cardboard cutout. They all have brains of their own and their own views. That is what makes the film so real and satisfying.
The film is also really emotional and it is sure to make even the hardest of people cry. When I attended a screening of this film back in 2005, I noticed middle-aged men crying their hearts out. The flood gates were alive and well. They promptly wiped the tears away, but I noticed them. The film made me cry, cry, cry like never before. During the last 20-30 minutes of the film, I cried like never before in my life. I'm talking tears pouring down my cheeks during the course of the movie. I had a couple of people even look at me to make sure I was OK. Do I judge movies by tears? You bet I do. I say the more tears, the better. If a film can get to you like that, it must be doing something right. It knows just the right heartstrings to pull and when to pull them. You don't feel like it was forced or tacked at any point during the movie. It feels legitimate. I'm an old softy, what can I tell you.
My only hope is that one day a male version of this film is released entitled The Brotherhood of the Traveling Khakis. The film follows four boyhood friends who go away for the summer and embark on magical journeys. I star in the film and I attend film screenings and fall in love with Alexis Bledel during the screening of her latest movie. I can always dream! I always have my dreams. But hey, who are we without our dreams?
How can you see it?
The film came out on DVD in October of last year and it is pretty easy to find. It's a great DVD as you get to talk with the cast on a great commentary feature with everyone but Blake. Alexis is there and that is all that matters to me. You also get to talk with the director on deleted scenes. The author of the book also gives her take on the movie in a neat feature. A good DVD to buy for your girlfriend. You might even watch it once and be surprised by it. I know I was.
Why should you see it?
If you are a fan of Alexis, or a sucker for a good cry like me, this is a must view. If you also would like to see a film that gives teenage girls an honest and accurate portrayal, this is a must view. If you are a parent and want your teens to see something they can be proud of, this is a must view.
Why was it forgotten?
The film made decent money at the box office and on VHS rentals, but I think this film should have easily made 100 million dollars and been a big hit with teens all over. Sadly, the film was released in the summer of 2005 and along with Cinderella Man took a box office hit. People were more interested in seeing junky comedies like The Longest Yard.
Lastly, sorry for my column missing last week. I was extremely busy on the Thanksgiving holiday and since I post my column on Thursday, it made it hard for me to post it. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and I'll see you next Saturday as usual.
