The sex has always been frisky or affectionate or acrobatic. The city unabashedly New York.
And the women starring in “Sex and the City 2” remain one of television’s most indelible foursomes, though now they are doing quite well for themselves on the big screen, thank you very much.
Their first film foray, in 2008, was a bona fide hit. “Sex and the City” did even bigger biz abroad, a reason the filmmakers felt emboldened to make a sequel and send the ladies on an extravagant trip overseas.
This outing finds Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha strangers in the strange land of Abu Dhabi, one of the seven states in the Arabian peninsula’s United Arab Emirates.
The movie leaves the East Coast when Samantha takes her posse on a much-needed, all-expenses-paid trip to “the New Middle East” courtesy of a sheik with a hotel to promote.
It’s been two years since writer Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Big (Chris Noth) tied the knot in a City Hall ceremony. Now, she’s penned a collection about her status as a wife, “I Do. Do I?” that ponders what marriage routines mean for the once-single gal.
In “2” everyone’s wrestling with a crisis of self. Samantha (Kim Cattrall) is fighting hot flashes and a tragically depressed libido. Charlotte (Kristin Davis) wrestles with feelings of being a less-than-perfect mother. Adding to her worries: a possibly too-perfect Irish nanny (Alice Eve). And Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), finally a partner at her law firm, has a co-worker making her work hell.
“Sex and the City 2” has plenty of pleasures, naughty and nice. It begins with an absolutely too fabulous wedding in Connecticut. A dance number from a special guest teases YouTube’s brilliant Gwen Verdon-Beyonce mashup.
Yet “2” also comes with a rub, one that begins to chafe midway through its nearly 2 1/2 hours. (Consider this a five-episode binge.)
Writer-director and clever fellow Michael Patrick King wanted to make “an escape, a total escape” for audiences. I don’t know about you, but fleeing into fantasyland does not involve the Middle East. Paris fine. Mexico, groovy (sort of). Abu Dhabi, not so comfy.
As the movie lands in Abu Dhabi its temperament shifts from screwball romance to David Lean epic (with composer Aaron Zigman dishing lush “Lawrence of Arabia” strains) to land at comedy reminiscent of the Hope-Crosby-Lamour “Road to . . .” jaunts.
Sure, Miranda tries to be more than an Occidental tourist, plying a word or two of Arabic and trying to keep Samantha vaguely in line. And Carrie makes nice with her butler Gaurau (Raza Jaffrey), learning a thing or two about marriage.
One of the charms of “Sex and the City” has been its calibrated gift for mixing the frivolous with the vital, consumer therapy with something emotionally truer: friendship between the ladies but also their evolving camaraderie with their men.
Noth, Evan Handler and David Eigenberg as John James Preston, Harry Golden- blatt and Steve Brady are ingeniously complementary characters (not to mention gentle hottie Smith, played once again by Jason Lewis). They get short shrift here. And it’s a disappointment.
Big is the exception, having to take a call from Carrie after she’s run into former love Aidan (John Corbett) in a souk. The improbable meeting is one of those cosmic teases sure to turn a married gal with issues into a dervish of ambivalence.
Sending the gals to a region most on our geopolitical minds — even one branded the “New Middle East” — is either courageous, foolhardy or arrogant. The script swings among the three qualities with a kind of muddled feminism, succeeding some, blundering some.
Really, has anyone ever looked to this quartet for global guidance? They seldom engage the darker, harsher side of the City. And we’ve made easy peace with that.
Why snag so much tart fun on a scene that pits Samantha’s lack of decorum against some sheik’s masculine entitlement? Each represents extremes. And let’s be honest, Samantha’s public displays of seduction might offend even those of us who adore her. In “2” Samantha seems desperate, which may be the case. Worse, she seems unprofessional, which we don’t believe for a second.
“Sex and the City” suggests not only that you can’t take the women out of the city. But you shouldn’t take the city out of the equation either.
Film critic Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@ ; also on blogs.denverpostcom/ madmoviegoer
“Sex and the City 2”
R for some strong sexual content and language. 2 hours, 27 minutes. Written and directed by Michael Patrick King; from the TV series created by Darren Star; photography by John Thomas; starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, John Corbett, Chris Noth, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler, Jason Lewis, Willie Garson and Mario Cantone. Opens today at area theaters.
