“I got to thinking…” does anything stay the same? Could it? Would we want it to? Maybe in the case of this movie the answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ And so like thousands of female fans rushing to the nearest cinema to see what became of our four girls- since the series ended with the big words, “Carrie, you’re the one” – I wanted to know where had they all landed. And I realized, no matter what the movie delivered – even if they spent two hours on a couch talking – I am an addict. When it begins, Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) has moved to L A to play manager to her young-lover-turned movie star, Smith Jared (Jason Lewis). Charlotte (Kristen Davis) had adopted little Lily and remains happily married to Harry (Evan Handler), while Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) continues to sink further into a Brooklyn life, sans business suits, to her husband Steve (David Eigenberg). But it’s our Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) that we most hope finds true happiness in her ever pining love for Mr. Big (Chris Noth.) Can he finally deliver at the altar? It takes 2 ½ hours and several well-woven (though lacking in substance) plot lines, to tell us how it all ends up for our now over-forty girls. And while it’s good to see that they’ve moved into real relationships, they haven’t evolved in the product sense. The movie’s main downfall is its endless promotion of labels (Prada, Manolo, et al) telling the new generation of “Sex” audiences that material equals success. And that love and happiness are now measured by the handbag – that you can apparently ‘rent’ – according to Carrie’s new wide-eyed, twenty year old assistant, Jennifer Hudson. This zaps a little bit out of the character of our once vulnerable and likeable, poor journalist, Carrie Bradshaw, turning her into a less inspiring, superficial version of herself. Three and 1/2 cosmos, er, tiaras
