You all ready know that I like wedding movies from a previous post. So, it should be no surprise that I saw Sex and the City the opening weekend. What may surprise you is that my wife did not want to go. She went to make me happy. We have move system that enables us to enjoy each others company and movies that the other one likes. However, I think that it is weird (or perhaps I’m the luckiest guy in the world) that I’m the one that wants romantic movie nights and a chick flick and her summer list is all action and superhero all the time.Sex and The City is a hard movie for an educated Generation X slacker to watch. Don’t get me wrong here. Once I turned off the part of brain that tells me that Sex in the City is nothing more than consumerism and classism on steroids, I was able to have a really good time. I even cried in a couple of places. It was a really great movie.

My favorite part of the movie had to have been the montage of big name wedding dress that Carrie wore for the Vogue photo shoot. Each dress was more amazing than the one before it. The shoot ended with the dress below.

There is a lot more in this movie than the main plot of the wedding. Each main character has some drama in her life that keeps the main themes of forgiveness and self-awareness churning along. Forgiveness is a concept that women and men must come to terms with in order for a relationship to work, in order for love to bloom. However, the envelop is pushed to the limits in the Miranda and Steve story line. I’m glad that the ending turned out the way that it did, but I’m not sure that I could have made the decision to forgive Steve.

Carrie and Big have their moment and Carrie has to forgive and take Big back one final time. I can’t say that I did not see the left-at-the-alter plot coming from minute I sat down, but when it happed, I was shocked and saddened. The fairy tale has a happy ending, including a Cinderella glass-slipper moment. However, I keep asking myself why women like Miranda and Carrie have to settle for men like Steve and Big. I guess that the reality of life is that all women must compromise themselves and what they want for their men.

I’m glad that the compromises that Carrie and Miranda make are tempered with the happiness of Charlotte and Samantha. As the movie progresses we learn that Charlotte had to adopt in order to have a proper family. Charlotte has resided herself to being barren. Yet, she is rewarded with in the end with her own child. She has everything that she has ever wanted. However, I’m not sure that she really grew or learning anything about herself in the movie. The Charlotte at the beginning was the Charlotte at the end, except holding a new born child. To tell the truth, Charlotte is most boring of all the characters.

Meanwhile, Samantha, believe it or not has been in a long term relationship for five years. Yup, the same guy. I did not think that was even possible. She is unhappy by the end and leaves him. It took her five years to remember who Samantha Jones really is and what she really wants. It was good to she her take back her life. It did seem like she was in a good relationship with a good man. However, Samantha needs more than that; she needs the world to revolve around her and her needs, she is not the moon or the earth, she is the sun.

It was a magical movie. One of the best I’ve seen all year. I know that the summer is still young and there are many big films on the way, but I just don’t think that any of them will be able to hold up to Sex in the City.

The Soulless Machine