Susan Granger’s review of “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2” (Warner Bros.)
Having just completed their first year of college, the four lifelong friends of Ann Brashares’ “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” are back for another summer of drama and discovery, sharing the magical pair of thrift-shop jeans as a way of staying connected to their past and each other.
When Lena (Alexis Bledel) goes back to Greece for her grandfather’s funeral, she discovers her beloved Kostas (Michael Rady) is married. Heartbroken, she throws herself into her art studies at the Rhode Island School of Design and becomes romantically involved with the male model (Jesse Williams) who poses for her class.
While working in a video store and trying to write a romantic comedy for her NYU film project, rebellious Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) takes her relationship with Brian (Leonardo Nam) too far and fears she may be pregnant.
Still struggling with her mother’s death, Bridget (Blake Lively) travels to Turkey, where she works on an archeological dig until her mentor (Shohreh Aghdashloo) makes her aware that that the memories she needs to unearth are in Alabama with her estranged maternal grandmother (Blythe Danner).
And since Carmen’s (America Ferrera) recently re-married mother (Racel Ticotin) is expecting a baby, she impulsively goes to Vermont to work backstage at a theater festival where she discovers talent – and courage – she never dreamed she had.
Although the screenplay’s kaleidoscopic structure is distracting, interweaving the four coming-of-age adventures, writer Elizabeth Chandler and director Sanaa Hamri should intrigue their target audience of teenage girls with lessons about love, disappointment and forgiveness.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” is a familiar 5. And Fairfield County audiences will recognize scenes filmed at Yale and the Westport Country Playhouse.
