I haven't seen the movie yet (away on business for a few weeks) and hesitated to read your post since there were spoilers, but I chose to read it since I've already decided for myself that I'm going to hate the movie anyway. With that, I'll say that I expect to have a very similar view of the movie as you do.

I was always a huge fan of the show-- it was a silly way to spend your Sunday evenings before diving back into the work week. It's been said that the show is so beloved by women because it shows "real" women. I disagree with that-- they show hyper-sensationalized versions of certain character types. Yes, there may be real woman out there that has as many sex partners as Samantha, but I think the Samantha character is about as "real" as a woman who is tattooed from head to toe. Sure, she exists, but is not an example of a "real" as in "average" woman. By the end of the series I was somewhat frustrated with their escapades, especially Carrie. Though I did thoroughly enjoy the way they tied up the plotlines in the series, especially the Charlotte/Harry situation. Full disclosure: I see a lot of similarities between my own current relationship and that of Charlotte and Harry, but I don't think that's why I was so fond of their tv relationship. That was the relationship to me that did seem the most "real." Her making mistakes with him and then seeing the resolution (wherein they got back together, in a touching way), seemed a little fairytale-ish, but real. The rest of the characters are pretty damn ridiculous. And it seems to me that they behave increasingly ridiculous in this movie.

Ugh, after all that rambling I should have just said: I'm going to hate the movie and I think this post is fantastic.

I saw the first three seasons of the show (like them) and the movie (hated it with a passion) and am writing a column about it for Townhall. By the way, one Karol Sheinin consulted with me on the column =D

I think K. and I are generally on the same page, although I probably like the characters less. To be honest, I don't think any of the women are particularly likable people with the possible exception of Charlotte, who is about as real as unicorn. She slept with almost as many men as Samantha in the first 3 seasons and then was genuinely offended when her friends dropped "F-bombs" in front of her. Please.

Anyway -- the movie was torturous and K.'s review was great.

The conceit that something is important because it makes you think is a tired one often proffered to validate the production of something with no inherent worth. You offer it as reason to validate sex and the city; my girlfriend in college offered it to justify acting in a bertolt Brecht play, and an old boss of mine used it to justify a loathsome play about narcissists. To which I say: bollocks. If something does not appeal to you the passion with which you react to it does not validate it. Think through the logic there. Das kapital does not appeal to me and I have a visceral aversion to Marxism, but this does not validate the worth of the book. So I don't buy the argument thatsomething has worth because I have a visceral reaction to it. Personally I love sex and the city precisely because it celebrates aesthetics ad capitalism and materialism.

I had a blogpost all ready to go to review this movie and you beat me to it, sentiment and all!

You're spot on with your review. I liked the TV series (somewhat) but loathed this movie. Big treats Carrie like shit, over and over again and she keeps coming back for more? Is this really how the screenwriters see her character? As a whipping board for overindulgent men who can't grow up, even at an advancing age? But maybe that's the subtext of the whole series; that if you act like Carrie, self-absorbed and shallowly materialistic, you end up wasting your youth on vaporous pleasures.

Carrie sucks.

Whoa- that Dave guy wants everyone to know that he knows lots of big words and worked really hard to come up with that long-winded reply with no point.

I think your blog was great. Right on.

I knew a guy that dumped the same girl three times over the course of two years and I hear they're getting married this month. I know another guy that got dumped by the same girl twice over three months and now they live together happily ever after on the West Coast.
Love conquers all.

"Love conquers all."

Please never let me have the kind of love where I am left at the altar. I don't need that kind of conquering.

hahahahaah --- but once everything settles down, you guys'll meet up at city hall and do the deed!

I felt like this film was a sucker punch in most ways. I'm curious you liked Charlotte the most, I think they gave her short shrift compared to the other characters - then again, the other characters just behaved like caricatures of themselves, making it even more annoying when they kept forcefeeding the whole "These women have MATURED emotionally" bit. I remember seeing Miranda take care of Steve's mother in the last episode, that was a big act of selflessness for her that I don't think taking him back after he cheated compared to. That said I did always like them together, but thought the film messed with them unnecessarily. Or Samantha giving a relationship a go, only to have the film portray that relationships are indeed the unfulfilling self sacrifice she always feared them to be. AND she got "fat", which her best friends immediately called her on (as if this would ever happen!). I wouldn't have minded the missing humour quite as much if it seemed like they had done anything at all with the characters' progress, but like Big and Carrie it was just a limp retread. Big - his sole charm previously being his self assurance, for some reason they decide to make him a quivering wreck of a man? Carrie, she was always annoying and immature, so taking back a man who jilted her at the altar who hadn't so much as buzzed her doorbell to apologize (What, he forgot where she lived?!), wasn't out of step. I can see what they were trying to do, and while I did like seeing the ladies again, it was a pretty hollow experience all in all.

Oh and unlike you, I never got the impression Big's wealth was what attracted Carrie, at least not primarily. He never exactly spoiled her, taking her to cheap restaurants and buying her ugly old lady handbags! It was more his inaccessibility, he was always just out of arms reach, even when they were together she never felt safe, which for Carrie was apparently a turn on. And that bag she gave her assistant was beyond ugly, I agree!

I agree, it was the ugliest bag ever.

I love Charlotte too and that line.

I really enjoyed the film for what it was. A bit of fun. I never took the series seriously and Carrie was always a pain in the arse to me. All she ever did was whinge and plead her neuroses to everyone, not least Big. If I was a guy I'd ditch her too. I don't think she treated him like a bank account though, I just think she was too much of a pain in the arse, kept ruining it when things were going good with her constant 'what if's and why not's' - ugh!

Go Charlotte!

Here's the thing: Carrie has her big revelation that she should marry Big while watching a jilted girlfriend's jewelry be auctioned off. When she brags about him to her friends, it's that he said "I got it" when he buys the apartment. Is she a gold digger who would settle for anyone that gave her dough? No. But she falls for Big primarily because he is "big" in the wallet. If there's another explanation, SATC never provides it.

Well I am a saddo who did try to glean more than light entertainment from the show!
I agree that part of the film could give that impression about Carrie & Big - but I kind of took it as he was finally completely committing to her in buying their home. I just never got that impression in the show, I mean there was a whole episode where she hangs out with a girl who lives off of sugar daddies, and gets one of her own briefly before realizing it makes her feel like a hoe. I truly do not think Big's appeal was his money, but that was my interpetation, the show certainly left his character open to interpret as he was largely a mystery. The film tried to maintain that by keeping him out of it for most of it but I did feel it was a step backwards in terms of Carrie and Big's maturing.

buzzed her doorbell to apologize (What, he forgot where she lived?!),

i didn't even think of that!!! so true, even miranda shows up in a a cab only after three days.

Yeah, they were all, "he doesn't have her phone number" and she banished his emails to the trash, which Carrie of course would never think to check being a computer dolt and all (fair enough but he still knew where the Brownstone was!). I just thought it was stupid they weren't just like, they needed space apart to come back together, not bothering with lame platitudes. And COPIED love letters, sorry I thought that was lame too. Sorry to keep ranting, I wanted to love it so much. Even if it had had no plot, if they had stayed true to the characters instead of trying to make this huge dramatic arc I would've been happy with it. My favourite part was when Carrie and Miranda were in Duane Reade or Rite Aid or whatever because it just looked exactly like every Manhattan drug store and that made me miss NY.

Heh. I can watch people getting stabbed and shot. I can watch people crawling through a sewer pipe. Well, actually that was Tim Robbins, so it doesn't count.

But I can't handle embarrassment either - makes me squirm in my seat. I thought it was just me.

And you are very much a romantic, Karol. In the truest sense of the word. Well, maybe not the "derived from Latin" part. You know what I mean.

Funny, I thought she called him Mr. Big because he had a big dick. The show is called Sex and the City, Remember the stuffy upper east side party Big took Carrie to in the series? She hated it and left with the waiter. Carrie was a hippie-ish girl. She didn't enjoy pretense. I'd hardly call her a gold digger. When the movie opened, Carrie was financially sufficient on her own with several books under her belt. I think it's safe to say that money and success marries money and success. Maybe she couldn't buy the pre-war apartment on her own, but she was doing well. Big and Carrie ran in the same social circles of Manhattan. It's not like he rescued a cocktail waitress (ahem, George Clooney). I agree that it was the chase. Big was mysterious and charming--at least in the series.