The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants film review

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THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS

There is a fortune waiting for the company that can create a 'one size fits all' pair of jeans. For one, the retailers will save acres of storage. It would also take away the stigma for those embarrassed by their waistband. The snappily-titled The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants, based on Ann Brashares' novel, is about four teenage girls who are conjoined by a pair of jeans that magically fits them all perfectly despite their differing heights and girths.

We're dealing in symbolism here so it doesn't pay to question the physics. It's a tribute to the story's involving charm and the angst-filled journeys of the four girls that the jeans' flexible characteristics are, if not plausible, at least accepted. After all, "These aren't just jeans," declares the Paris Hilton-esque Bridget (Blake Lively) "they make things happen." And happen they certainly do.

The four girls - Tibby (Amber Tamblyn), Carmen (America Ferrera), Lena (Alexis Bledel) and Bridget - have been a foursome since their mothers met at a pre natal exercise class. Despite their differing backgrounds and privilege, the girls have formed a tight bond, one which is being challenged as they all go their separate ways in life. Having discovered the jeans' special properties, the girls draw up a manifesto outlining the rules for the ownership of the pants which will be passed around every week. The rules vary from the unhygienic (they can't wash the pants) to the revelatory (they have to disclose what happened while wearing them).

With that understanding they all go off for the summer. Bridget heads to Mexico for soccer camp, Lena visits her grandparents in Greece, Carmen visits her estranged father and his new family while Tibby remains at home, working in a local store and making a documentary. Through their various experiences, the film explores poignantly, under the sympathetic and patient guidance of director Ken Kwapis, the emotional vulnerability of being a teenage girl. It deals with loss, love and identity. Away from each other, they begin to discover themselves. But away from each other they also have pangs of loneliness, which is why they are always so excited when it's their turn for the jeans and they are reconnected with their sisterhood.