The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

I find it funny to think about these ‘coming-of-age’ movies. You know that group of films that you’re meant to watch at a certain age, fall in love with them, and then hold them as a bit of a torch until something better comes along. I have so many friends who say that The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is theirs. I never saw it when I was 13 or 14 so when I finally sat down and watched this as a 20+ year-old, I didn’t have the driving force of nostalgia working behind me. But maybe this is a good thing. Because while I can complain that there is a lot of cheesiness and slightly Disney-fied ‘teen drama’, this is actually not a bad movie. Honestly, I’ve now seen it twice and am tempted to get on Netflix and watch the sequel. 

Four best friends are about to be apart for the first time ever, with school having finished and a big summer coming up. Shy wallflower, Lena is going to visit her grandparents in Greece, loud and life-loving Bridget is heading to soccer camp in Mexico, outspoken and ‘rebellious’ Tibby is staying at home with a summer job, and Carmen is visiting her dad in South Carolina. During a visit to a second-hand shop the group find a pair of jeans that somehow manages to fit all of them perfectly, despite their different sizes. The girls dub them ‘The Traveling Pants’ and create a sisterhood, vowing to send the pants to each other over the summer to keep them unified. As each girl gets the pants, things happen that will change their lives, their attitudes, but strengthen their friendship. 

In all honesty, this is a sweet movie that tells a number of different stories, which immediately gives it depth and some complexity. What’s nicest about it is that each story has a drama in it that is actually quite adult and depicts how the girls deal with them, despite not really being adults themselves. 

In true coming-of-age style, adults are painted as villains or obstacles that the girls must overcome and whilst some of the plots feature some stupid level of finding oneself that seems pretty forced by the situations their narratives are shoved into, all in all the outcomes and the character growth does deliver the feels. 

With such a plate of plotlines to focus on, we’re presented with ethical opportunities to consider how we would act out in these situations and that’s always a good sign for a movie. If they inspire you to put yourself in the place of the characters, then it’s doing something right. 

The performances are all solid: relatable and recognizable, I’m sure that each of us knows people like this and that brings a nice level of realism to the movie and reduces a little bit of the voyeuristic element by bringing it closer to home. But at the same time there’s something of a romantic fairytale element at play with the growth of the characters and how certain stories are shot, keeping the movie on that cloud-thin plane just above reality. 

You can argue that the scenes transitions are clichéd and sometimes clumsy, that some of the stories are weaker than the others, and that some of the performances could have given us more, but at the end of the day The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is just a sweet, coming-of-age movie that inspires a number of feelings, namely an attachment to these characters and an ethical opportunity to put ourselves in their place. It’s really not a bad movie. 

Starring: Blake Lively, Amber Tamlyn, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, Jenna Boyd, Bradley Whitford, Nancy Travis, Rachel Ticotin, Maria Konstadarou, George Touliatos, Michael Rady, and Mike Vogel 

Rating: PG