The Fantastic Four ( aka Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte, played, respectively, by Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, out actor Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis ) are back in Sex and the City 2 almost exactly two years to the day after the blockbuster first movie edition just about single-handedly brought women ( and gay men ) back into the theaters in droves. With such a big financial hit on their hands who can blame out writer-director-producer Michael Patrick King, his stars and their supporting cast from making a return trip to Carrieland?
Everything that fans of the original HBO series loved is here, though a tad more subdued and a bit more long in the tooth. The fabulous fashions, the shoes, the trendy restaurants and nightclubs, the stunning, hot men, and the bitchy bon mots? Check. The over-the-top characters bordering on the stereotypical? Check. At least one sequence with a gaudy wedding? Check.
These last two items combine in the movie's opening scenes, in which the gay sidekicksthe fussy dandy Pee Wee Herman look-a-like Stanford ( Willie Garson ) and his onetime nemesis, the loudmouth Italian wedding planner Anthony ( out comic actor Mario Cantone ) have now found true love with each other ( for convenience's sake, apparently ) and wed in Connecticut. The affair is color-coded in black and white with a gay choir belting out "If Ever I Would Leave You," and "Sunrise, Sunset" as the two grooms are wed bynaturallyLiza Minnelli, who goes on to perform Beyonce's "Single Ladies ( Put a Ring On It ) " at the reception.
But there's a fly in the wedding cake when Anthony tells the gals, in all seriousness, that getting married doesn't mean he has to be monogamouswhich once again gives Carrie & Co. something to think about. Carrie, it seems, isn't ready to settle for just quiet nights at home with Big ( Chris Noth ) . Other midlife-crisis issues are also hitting the ladies ( from menopause to fat to fidelity ) so the quartet jumps at the chance to head for Abu Dhabi, all expenses paid, when Miranda lands a prospective PR client with a fancy hotel. Here, the movie kicks into a long travel ad for the luxuries of the Middle East as the ladies indulge their fantasy whims with a jam-packed itinerary. With the reappearance of Carrie's old love, Aidan ( John Corbett ) , however, it's time for our shoe-loving Dorothy to again realize that there's no place like homeespecially when Big's there to cuddle with.
As always, our Carrie will need time to kvetch and kick up her heels on her own yellow brick road before figuring that out. And just as in the first go-round, Sex and the City 2 gives her all the time in the world. But unlike the first edition ( also nearly two and a half hours long ) , this time the viewer feels more than a little jet-lagged. Tempting as those big box-office payoffs are, King might take a page from his leading character and learn that, fas un as these outings are, it might be time for Carrie & Co. to hang up the Manolo Blahniks and stay home once and for all.
The City of Your Final Destination is the first Merchant-Ivory film without the participation of Ismail Merchant, gay director James Ivory's business and rumored personal partner who died in 2005. So pronounced is the Merchant-Ivory imprimatur on film the phrase has come to stand for movies as literary, sophisticated and entertaining as the historic novels from which they're adapted. But their modern-day movies have a tendency to seem creaky and out of touch, and that's one of the biggest flaws in Destination, adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala ( from the novel by out writer Peter Cameron ) in her 23rd collaboration with Ivory. The movie also has maddening character and situation gaps that further require one to suspend disbelief. But if you can make that leap, the film offers many of the signature Merchant/Ivory/Jhabvala compensations.
The story focuses on Omar ( the dreamy Omar Metwally ) , a college professor turned down in his attempt to get permission from the surviving family members of a now-dead writer to write an authorized biography. At the behest of his headstrong girlfriend, Deidre ( Alexandra Maria Lara ) , Omar travels to Uruguay and the writer's private estate to get them to change their minds. Upon arriving he's invited to stay by the late writer's free-spirited but anxiety-prone mistress Arden ( Charlotte Gainsbourg ) . He quickly meets the othersthe widow ( Laura Linney ) , a chilly scold; the gay brother, Adam ( Anthony Hopkins, playing his first onscreen gay role ) ; and his lover, Pete ( an especially effective Hiroyuki Sanada ) all of whom live together in apparent, hermetically sealed harmony along with Arden's precocious little daughter.
Though we quickly discern that even beyond the grave the writer wields tremendous influence over his survivors, something they are desperate to be free of, Omar doesn't seem to. Instead, as Omar becomes infatuated with Arden his objective fritters into the backgroundthat is, until an accident brings Deidre to Ocho Rios to shake things up.
The movie's oddly lyrical tone is broken by an unnecessary last act coda that feels tacked on and robs the movie of its strange, elliptical feeling. And the love affair between Omar and Arden isn't nearly as convincing as the one between Adam and Pete. It's this long-lasting relationship between the elderly gay couple that makes The City of Your Final Destination the real reason to see the movie. Ignore the weak, central character, the cuckoo love affair and the other problems with the film, and concentrate on these two. Aside from being delicately and simply presentedif I don't miss my guessthis relationship also serves as a fitting tribute to Merchant by Ivory.
Film note:
Freeheld, the searing 2007 Oscar-winning documentary short by Cynthia Wade ( profiled in Windy City Times ) focused on the struggles of a lesbian couple faced with health challenges to get pension and death benefits for the surviving partner. Now their heartwrenching story is being made into a feature film. Out screenwriter Ron Nyswaner ( Philadelphia ) is writing a feature-length adaptation of the story, and Ellen Page ( Juno, Whip It ) has been signed to star.
Check out my archived reviews at www.windycitytimes.com or www.knightatthemovies.com . Readers can leave feedback at the latter Web site.