A funny thing happened over the summer with the purported teen chick-flick “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”
For many people, it became a parenting flick.
Or a date flick.
Or a grandparent flick.
And for many teenage girls, it became a repeat flick.
I’ll admit to seeing it on a date night, a rare evening without kids. Yes, we could have seen more obvious adult fare like “Cinderella Man.” But our daughters had talked so much about “Sisterhood,” its realistic portrayal of girls and the gorgeous Aegean scenery, we gave it a try.
More than a few Kleenex later, we happily discussed the movie over dinner.
“Sisterhood” did decent box- office business, taking in nearly $40 million on a budget of about $25 million, but it deserves a new life on DVD. Director Ken Kwapis faithfully and lovingly adapted the teenage best seller by Ann Brashares, elevating the story with good acting and emotional restraint.
The high-concept premise is that four best friends – from twiggy to slightly plump – discover a pair of jeans that fits all of them perfectly. They swap the jeans at key life moments one fateful summer, and live to tell about it.
A soccer star beds her coach, then regrets it. A wallflower visits family in Greece and blossoms in the arms of a local hunk. A bitter writer tries to reconcile with her divorced father. And a budding filmmaker, unhappy stocking shelves all summer, finds annoyance and friendship with a younger girl.
Certainly the movie steers alarmingly close to the hazards of, as one website put it, “group hugs.” But it veers away and lets the talented actresses create real girls on the verge of complex womanhood. And it does so without attacking the parenting choices of those of us who wanted to make the movie into a date night.
Parental screening sites on the Internet show surprising agreement on “Sisterhood.” Liberal or neutral sites appreciate the portrayals of strong, interesting girls. Sites that base their screenings on morality issues praised those qualities, and added kudos for Hollywood finally showing that teenage sex isn’t always a laugh riot.
NEW ON DVD
Batman Begins *** Batman goes car shopping! Silly but true, and also a key part of what makes this a fun-
enough movie. After a series of awful sequels, director Chris Nolan takes us to the origins of Batman, played ably by Christian Bale. We learn the boyhood trauma that launched his heroism, the tortured path between vengeance and justice, and how he got his powers. A talented cast includes Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman. PG-13; 130 minutes (Michael Booth)
George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead *** Life (and death) in zombie land has evolved. The zombies have learned to communicate, and their leader is figuring out what a machine gun is for. Meanwhile, the rich people cluster inside Fiddler’s Green, a luxury high-rise run by Dennis Hopper. He hires mercenaries, led by Simon Baker and John Leguizamo, to raid stores for goods, gas and booze. They use an armored truck that is central to the action. As usual, Romero adds a level of sly social satire. R; 93 minutes (Roger Ebert)
Dot the I ** This first effort by writer-director Matthew Parkhill is both more than it appears and less than it should be. What seems a fairly straightforward, slightly mysterious love triangle between a beautiful Spanish immigrant in London and two suitors suddenly transforms two-thirds of the way through into a twisted psych-thriller. But far too much of the twist is told in flashback, so it feels like a cheat. If you fool the audience, you need to give them a shot at redemption. It’s the kind of plot that may be redone better by Hollywood. R; 91 minutes (Michael Booth)
Kicking & Screaming ** 1/2 What should be a straightforward and overdue family comedy about soccer-crazed suburbs is instead an odd vehicle for Mike Ditka, the former coach of Da Bears, who’s not bad. But the script about Will Ferrell moving from nice dad to mean coach suffers from long spans without any real laughs. PG; 92 minutes (Michael Booth)
