The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005)

The movie is based on the young adult book, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, by Anne Brashares. As four best friends spend their first summer apart from one another, they share a magical pair of jeans. Despite being of various shapes and sizes, each one of them fits perfectly into the pants. To keep in touch they pass these pants to each other as well as the adventures they are going through while apart.

I give Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants a solid 80%.

And before anyone gives me crap, I took my teenage daughter to see this movie! So there. Anyway, There were a lot of good things about this movie. I went expecting a "teen girl flick", and it was to a large extent. But the reason why I rate it as high as I do is the treatment it gave some serious emotional and psychological issues of the girls in the story. The treatment was serious, even if at times the result was intended to be somewhat comical, it retained value in its approach to the subject.

The major issues the girls in the film had to deal with:

• Death of a parent
• Divorce of parents
• Being afraid to try things'
• Teen sex
• Death of a friend, in this case a younger girl
• Seeing life as either a "suckmentary", or something worthwhile

My favorite scenes were with Bailey. I tell you, as a father, seeing the interaction of Tibby and Bailey is emotional. I won't spoil it here, but it was the only seriously emotional part of the film for this adult.

This is not your ordinary teen girl flick. I highly recommend this to parents of teen girls. If you could actually see it with them, there is a mountain of material to talk to your kids about. Highly recommended.

My favorite quote from the movie:

Bailey: I want you to do something for me.
Tibby: What?
Bailey: Finish your documentary.
Tibby: Why?
Bailey: Because you can.