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N.Y. City Girls have Fun, Maybe a Little Sex

By Staff | Jun 20, 2008

Why do young women go to New York City? Fashion labels and to find love. That’s the message of the four friends — Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattrall, Charlotte (Kristin Davis), and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) — whose exploits in singlehood riveted each HBO episode of “Sex and the City.”

The movie adaptation remains a “chick” film but fairly debates the intangible difficulties of maneuvering through relationships with the opposite sex, particularly not being happy all the time whether single or in a relationship. The girl’s quartet, despite tears and tribulations, comes to grips with the essential selfishness of the infamous break it off phrase, “it’s not you it’s me,” a direct indirect way of stating — I want it all; I won’t get it with you. 

Representing a liberal, progressive, self-confident set of roommates, the women are guided by Carrie’s brushing them into celebrity circles with her Vogue job. These gals have a habit of dropping punchy one-liners mocking themselves even in the current film where they journey into the inevitability of aging and it’s increasingly repeated lesson that no man and no woman are perfect; if you don’t want to die alone, you’re going to have to compromise.

Naturally, Carrie’s the gal still balancing the love versus pain option, particularly by her on again, off again Mr. Big (Chris North) fascination. She thinks the perfect penthouse condo with an enrapturing view of the Big Apple would be the equalizer. “If we live here, what’s there to fight about,” she tells Big.

Significant other bliss gives way to legal differences between living together and having said, “I do” particularly in an audaciously splurging spectacle of Carrie’s perfect day.

Regulars know the gloves are coming off; it’s just a matter of when. In the meantime, attorney Miranda, who settled for a family and pad in the reborn section of Brooklyn, brings the first “I can’t decide alone” relationship issue to the jury of three. We recognize that telling about and embellishing “the fight” and the is this a deal breaker moment’ spins faster than an amusement park scrambler ride where logic meets a chorus of cursing from rooftop emotional flashbacks to every nasty breakup since before the high school prom. 

“Sex and the City,” complete with several scenes of the gals gettin’ it on with their love interests, has a wicked sense of humor as the sexes spar at each other and themselves. One of the cleverest verbal retorts occurs during a luncheon where conversation is within the range of youthful ears. Taut dialog dances, such as a sweetly uttered censorship for the benefit of young ears by substituting a tribute to Hollywood’s “that word” taboos with a quickly concocted no coloring phrase that refers not to crayons.

Planting seeds of monogamy sucks spurt into a supreme allegory to the fast-growing bean stock climbed by Jack in the land of fairy tales. However, the women whose acting binds them with the intimacy of sisters enjoy periods of “I’m not going to wait on a man,” the “it’s me” syndromes, and “how can a man again.”

Fortuitously, their escapades maintain the designer glam and shedding tears on often dampened shoulders yet retain overriding logic and instruction in making the most of romance, love and relationship realities. Based on their impatience, sordid timing and instant anger, viewers see a perspective that feverishly scurries the impact of options other than the standard — don’t answer his calls, don’t read his letters and avoid eye contact in public. And, viewers gain a frame of a reversal of the confrontational outcome if the lady had not lost her cool so quickly putting the full relationship at risk, rather than working through the lousy moment.

Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte contain the qualities of every woman on the planet — for that matter, likely every man too — watching them laugh, struggle and cry, perhaps longer than necessary if not for prideful assumptions, sets these New York City girls in position for choosing — a sad or happy ending.

The finale will keep you on edge (depending upon your knowledge of their inner personalities), and all I’ll add is that Big tells Carrie’s friend, “Every time I hear someone in heels walking down the hall, I look to see É”