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Sex and the City- The Movie Reviewed (Small spoiler below)

Standing amongst a sea of teenage and quarter-life girls with their token gays waiting to see the midnight premiere of Sex and the City, The Movie, the cult following of four women in their forties is shocking at first. However, looking at the television series and now the movie, it makes sense that the storyline of these women has captivated so many women of all stages in our modern age.

Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha are new archetypes of the modern woman. In a post-women’s lib world, these women depict the results of such efforts. Though the movie lacks a strong storyline, and instead crams a television season’s worth of fluff, puns and chaos into a 2.5 hour movie, it successfully presents modern women with a plethora of examples of what it can be to a be a woman.

A successful writer, lawyer, art dealer and PR rep of the Big Apple afford young women a clearer vision of career and personal growth intermixed with traditional feminine ideology of family and marriage. Increasingly, it is important for impressionable young women to realize they can have both a career and a family, if they choose. Furthermore, it is important for women of all ages to realize that it is alright if traditional feminine ideology does not suit their individual lifestyle.

This is what Samantha’s character and storyline in the movie portrays successfully. As Samantha attempts to fulfill traditional ideas of living for love, rather than solely herself, she realizes that she prefers the freedom of herself. The “me” factor. She abandons a unfulfilled and saddened life where she feels stuck at home as a traditional “housewife” in Los Angeles. The film ends with her turning 50, being single, successful and living the socialite life in New York City. The important part here is that she is happy with that and shows that this independent lifestyle is a perfectly fine selection for women. She is not punished in the storyline, like films of decades past where older, single women were treated more like old hags rather than fulfilled and happy members of society. Living to live rather than living to find a man is a pivotal pinpoint of Samantha’s character and a vital element that audience members should pick up on.

The overarching importance of a film like this, which relies on audience loyalty rather than cinematic quality and/or excellence, is the defining of a new type of womanhood, or rather the destruction of a single traditional ideal of womanhood into a flood of choices and options. Each of these options lead to differing places and viewers see the struggles, and they see the benefits.

Sex and the City reminds viewers that being single at 30, 40 and 50 is okay and, in actuality, can be beneficial for the idea and fulfillment of one’s self. Happiness can come from more than getting married, having a child and staying at home. At the same time, it is okay to desire traditional feminine archetypes. There are options and women are empowered to create them and choose them.

Sex and the City, The Movie fulfills America’s incessant need to overindulge, going for a second helping when the final meal was more than satisfying. However, the presentation of four successful, hard working, fun women living varying lifestyles in the nation’s biggest city is imperative in a society that continues to present young women with conflicting ideas of womanhood.

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