Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants of course spoilers

Yes. That is actually the title of this post. No, I did not find jeans that magically fit me and three of my friends. Heck, I can't find a pair that will fit just me. But I found a movie that fit quite nicely. The movie starred Joan of Arcadia and a Gilmore Girl and America Ferrera, and another girl who I didn't know from anything. They were well thought out characters, characters that were dynamic, that changed during the course of the movie, that were three dimensional. The story was well written, a good flow of ideas into images that sometimes took my breath away. And I cried.

How did I come to see this traveling pants movie, you ask? It all started out well enough. I was taking the girls I mentor to a movie, since we were getting too weighed down with all the things going on around us. I decided they should pick the movie. I was hoping we would get to see The Longest Yard, even though I've only heard so-so reviews about it. The Sisterhood came out that day and was at the top of the listing for movies and they didn't get much further than that one. I breathed a big sigh and said, "Okay." I invited a co-worker to go with us, simply because I didn't know her and thought it would be fun getting to know her. So there we were, our own weird sisterhood, going to watch this movie. I enjoyed the dialogue, the sadness that didn't get mired into sappiness, the realness of friendship portrayed, the truth of parent/child relationships. Even the benign self-centeredness of Carmen's (America Ferrera's character) stepmother-to-be as she prepared for her wedding was real. I wasn't quite that bad, but I remember. The favourite character was Bailey, the precocious 12 year old with leukemia. She was acidic enough to be 12, but caring enough to be a person facing death every day. I don't think Dakota Fanning has to watch her back, but she was truly good. I cried the most during Carmen's scenes with her dad. The longing to be with him even though he kept himself far from her, the treachery she felt, the anger, and the pure joy when he included her without being coerced into doing so. Maybe it was too much of a happy ending for her story, but at the same time, it was right. Oh, it's not Oscar worthy, where I left the theater thinking that I'd never seen a better written movie, or more ably acted, or anything like that. I did walk away from it with many topics running through my mind. Things like, why do I fear death? Will I ever be honest with my dad like Carmen? Can I stop looking down on others just because they chose a path I wouldn't have? Will I continue to fight for the love I've been given against any odds?

I guess I should say this at the beginning, but I recommend this movie. If you've gotten this far, you've seen a map of the journey, perhaps, but you haven't seen the beauty of Greece, and the joy of being acknowledged, or the anguish of defeating yourself that this movie takes you through. It's something else to look at the world again though another's eyes.