SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS 2

Let them eat cake

By KRISTEN HUMBERT

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For those who aren't diehard fans, watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is analogous to being coerced into eating mass quantities of angel food cake. There's nothing particularly offensive in its fluffy sweetness, yet we're left slightly bloated, unsatisfied and perplexed as to how anyone actually convinced us to participate.

Based on the series by author Ann Brashares, the Sisterhood sequel crams the last three of her novels into one film. In this frilly tweener tale, four "unique" friends, Tibby (Amber Tamblyn), Lena (Alexis Bledel), Carmen (America Ferrera) and Bridget (Blake Lively), share a pair of supposedly lucky pants that somehow fit them all, no matter the size of their ass. The pants keep them connected during times of separation, but college seems to take its toll—the summer following their freshman year, the quartet are hardly BFFs.

S of the TP2 (loves it) does a great disservice to its inviting prequel. Elizabeth Chandler's screen adaptation is often illogical and presents mostly unintended laughs and cliché romantic conflicts. The girls are no longer relatable or accessible, as the four lead charmed lives attending Ivy League schools, being courted by babes from boyland and taking trips to Greece and Turkey on someone else's dime. Reality is almost achieved with Tibby's pregnancy scare and Bridget's confrontation with her family's troubled history, yet both conflicts are too simply and neatly resolved.

Tamblyn and Blythe Danner (as Bridget's grandmother) manage to occasionally ground the plot with their layered, idiosyncratic characterizations, and Kyle MacLachlan brings humor to his role of flambouyant theater director without relying heavily on its well-worn stereotype. Yet Bledel, Ferrera and Lively remain essentially two-dimensional, shedding easy tears and performing a few perfectly placed pouts to make their already poorly drawn counterparts even less authentic.

The magic of the pants is quick to dissolve, as Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 offers little novelty or enthusiasm in presentation or performance. In the end, as we watch the four ladies awkwardly stare off into the Greek sunset, pantsless but still chums, we've gained nothing, not even the joy that comes from a silly, girly romp. Having your cake and eating it too? Sometimes, you just get fat.

SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS 2

RATED | PG-13

NOW SHOWING | REGAL FENWAY 13, AMC LOEWS BOSTON COMMON, AMC CHESTNUT HILL, ENTERTAINMENT CINEMAS FRESH POND, SHOWCASE CINEMAS REVERE