Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants / Second Summer of the Sist... by Ann Brashares

This little actress has the chops to win the Oscar someday. Special recognition should be given to Jenna Boyd as 12-year old Bailey, who believably transforms one teen from misogynist to humanist. None of these realistic setups for teen enlightenment can make an engaging film unless the actresses are believable, and in Sisterhood each young woman carries her role with deftness and sincerity sometimes not found in the most seasoned actresses. Love on a Greek island while riding a scooter like Audrey Hepburn through the streets of Rome demands confronting the intrusions of family reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet love on a beach in Mexico unleashes longing for a parent that goes beyond a beautiful boy a new life for a parent means the death of an old one for a child and teen alienation turns to acceptance and even love through the magic of a new friend. Rather each girl has an epiphany that grows naturally out of the frustrations accompanying inexperience and immaturity.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants offers no easy solutions to questions about openness, sexuality, parental neglect, and death. Two of these lifelong chums have summer romances that transcend the usual sun and sand trifles the other two deal with even more substantial challenges, ones that involve connecting with family or friends after years of disconnection.

As a coming-of-age film, this ranks with the best of them for non-condescending, adult-like perceptions, with nary a 'like' in the girls' vocabulary. The only magic realism in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is the one, one-size-fits-all pair of jeans worn the four female friends, whose summer adventures bring a dose of realism magical only for the insights into life, the pain and pleasure that come in from age seventeen to the end.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants / Second Summer of the Sist... by Ann Brashares