Well-done!  Historians of the future will look to this TV show and movie to comprehend the 3rd millennium Kulturpessimismus which encouraged equal doses of weeping and smirking.  They will be aghast at how half a century of feminism did nothing to discourage brazen cynicism about sexuality.  Your excellent review possesses more humor and insight than all the denizens of Carrie Nation.

first of all Kathryn Jean Lopez loved it, so you might want to take that into consideration. 

second of all, I thought Parker and Big get married at the end in a little ceremony or at city hall or something?  Are you sure you stayed till the end?

i suggest you see it again and watch *carefully*.  A lot of serious art requires repeat experiences.

A wonderful essay about a disgusting movie.

I can only repeat what others have said. A very good post about a Movie I have no interest in seeing.

I agree with Tom Piatak’s comment about the disproportion between this fine review and
the yuppie banality of the movie that Helen is evaluating. I’ve no idea how I would
even sit through such unadulterated crap without trying to escape from having to view
the screen and listen to the dialogue.

What a review! I haven’t seen the movie and don’t plan to, but Helen managed to
capture everything I hated about the series, but was unable to put into words.

The fan base of Ali McBeal and SITC used to be my dating pool and help explain
why I married a Mexican woman.

I’m glad my girlfriend is going to see this with her sisters, and leaving me out.

Very well done. Thanks for suffering through this for our benefit.

Forget what I said--Dr. Gottfried said it much better.

I’m afraid I promised my girlfriend to go with her, as a counterfavour to her for seeing Indiana Jones..

Oh well, I’ll take a beer before I go.

Why are you so angry?  It’s just a movie.  Albiet a PROFOUND movie that obviously went
right over your head.  Flash: people are flawed.  Hedda Gabler was self-absorbed. Nora
walked out on Torvald.  Oedipus loved his mother!  Get a context before you start hurling
criticisms.  Or do you want more violence?  More of the same old thing?  This movie was
very old fashioned; it had a story and strong characters which were all on television
for six years.  Quick, Miss Fancy Pants, name a movie made from a TV show that ran for
six years and used the SAME CAST.  A brilliant result.
I wonder if Carrie felt as smug as you do when she wrote her articles.  I think not.
Would it hurt so much to say, “This is what I thought”?  Just cause you say it, sister,
it ain’t so.  I loved it.  But then again, I have context and am profound.

Quick, Miss Fancy Pants, name a movie made from a TV show that ran for six years...

Green Acres. And speaking of profound, one of the stars of the show was a talking pig, named Arnold Ziffle.

Michael,

Having a raunchy, immoral television show run for six years and proceed to launch a Hollywood movie, all with the same cast, only condemns today’s dissociety; such a dubious accomplishment is far from a badge of merit.

Sarah Jessica Parker? What happened to the other
talents on “Square Pegs”?

But then again, I have context and am profound.

Michael, I can only think your comment was brilliant parody.  Who goes around calling himself “profound”? It reminds me of an encounter with a fellow with whom I was discussing chess. Asking whether or not he played, he said, “Of course I play; I’m an intellectual.” And he was dead serious.

Surely, though, you are not.

Glad you took my advice and saw the movie Helen.

I’m sorry that you had too, though, for everything I’ve read about it or heard from people who saw it just helped solidify and confirm my worst fears of the movie.

Check out this review from The Atlantic…

http://thecurrent.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/06/sex-and-the-cineplex.php

This is by no means intended to disparage the author of the article or her obviously good intentions, but why are we even wasting valuable time discussing seriously - as if it were a film worthy of our attention - such infantile dreck?

If we’re going to talk seriously about films let’s start with the work of fine artists with original minds, like David Lean for instance, whose centenary year this is.  That would be a far more worthy subject for discussion than the ludicrous rubbish spilling out of Hollywood for the last thirty-five years or so.

What a great review. Here’s another pan from the new yorker…

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2008/06/09/080609crci_cinema_lane?currentPage=all

Thanks to “I am not Spartacus” for the Green Acres comeback.  That made my day.

I don’t doubt your review and I have absolutely no intention of seeing the movie, but is it possible that the whole thing (both series and movie) is meant as satire of the very things you point out (self-absorbed yuppie chicks?).  Haven’t seen flick or series, so I can’t really judge.  But sometimes satire is well disguised (Like Stephen Colbert - it is sometimes difficult to tell at whom his satire is really directed).

Great review Helen.  I think the title for this loser should have been Why the West Isn’t Afraid to Die.

In effect, Helen is agreeing with Marge Simpson who said,"That’s the show about four women acting like gay guys.” Both the show’s creator and the movie’s writer-director are homosexuals, and self-absorbed is nearly the definition of a homosexual.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/09/1076175068807.html

The character Brian Griffin from The Family Guy once referred to SATC as that show about ‘3 hookers and their mom.’

Well, I mean, okay. In the spirit of interpretive charity, I think you’re misinterpreting the line “Why is it that we’re willing to write our own vows but not our own rules?” The point is exactly that she _is_ listening to other people, and _not_ thinking about what a marital relation actually is: a unique arrangement between two people that has a distinctive public face without being public. When making her decisions, she included the wrong people, and excluded the person who should’ve mattered most.

Also, “Even the ladies’ four-way friendship, supposedly the show’s moral center, involves so much confessional self-reflection that one is tempted to conclude that relationships with other people are only interesting insofar as they enable self-discovery.” But isn’t it only because Carrie is willing to tell Miranda that she thinks the latter made a mistake is dismissing Steve so quickly that she finally relents? The ability to receive loving criticism from a friend and see with something other than one’s own eyes matters.

No defense of Samantha, though. That one was just illogical.

And they say liberals are shrill ...

I don’t doubt your review and I have absolutely no intention of seeing the movie, but is it possible that the whole thing (both series and movie) is meant as satire of the very things you point out (self-absorbed yuppie chicks?).

http://www.candacebushnell.com/content.php?content.1

“Both the show’s creator and the movie’s writer-director are homosexuals, and self-absorbed is nearly the definition of a homosexual.”

...And half the audience(right, Michael?).

“...why I married a Mexican woman.”

For an opposite take on Sex in the City, watch Spanglish.

Begin watching at 5:20.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t3HnzrPwsc&feature=related

Her newly Americanized daughter tells her, “I need some space.”

The mother retorts “there is no space between us!”

Good flick. In Spanglish, the American wife (Tea Leoni’s character) was the personification of
everything loathesome about American woman. In short, she is exactly what the SITC girls would be if hitched.

The sit-com made me respect the “Taliban”.

The latest news is New York City is the herpes capital of America, maybe the world.

Good work.  It’s pathetic to see fan clubs of naive young women modelling themselves on the four wicked harpies on this show. Each club has a Carrie, a Samantha, etc.  What these dolts fail to realize is that, unless you are pulling down 300,000 a year and living in the Big Apple, you can’t emulate these sisters.  How many women in America can afford $20 cocktails on a regular basis? But then this show never overestimated the brain cells of its audience.