I have always heard the thrill of the chase is better than the kill of the prey. Now that the "Sex and the City" (SATC) movie is about a week old, I can verify this sentiment.
For months, I have been in a state of controlled frenzy as I waited for the premiere of what can arguably be referred to as the single girl's Super Bowl.
When I was finally in the theater, I must have been experiencing sensory overload. The whole theater was teeming with chattering, chicly-dressed women. I was hungry and thought about going for some popcorn, but I ignored my hunger pangs, determined not to miss not even one second of the epic that was about to unfold.
Although I don't wear perfume that much, I could smell the perfume of many women wafting in the air. As I was breathing it all in, one of my girlfriends said, "There is a lot of estrogen in this room."
"You think," I thought about sarcastically replying, but the movie was starting so I had no energy or patience for words.
When the movie finally started, I realized I must have been holding my breath as my body started to relax and settle in my seat. And that anticipation was the best part of the experience.
From the moment the movie started, I kept waiting for IT to happen. What is IT? I still don't know, but IT was missing. (If you haven't seen the movie, you might want to stop reading now.)
The SATC movie picks up where the show ended four years ago with New York girls Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin Davis), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Samantha (Kim Cattrall). After 10 years of a "break up to make up" relationship, Carrie, a columnist turned successful book author, has finally snagged the nearly elusive Mr. Big (Chris Noth), and they are preparing for a wedding.
Charlotte is a mother to a child she adopted with her loving husband Harry (Evan Handler). Miranda, a hard-driving attorney, is married to laid back bartender Steve (David Eigenberg), and they are raising their five-year-old son in Brooklyn.
Sexpot and public relations professional Samantha is in Los Angeles managing the acting career of her hot young boyfriend Smith Jerrod (Jason Lewis).
From then on, we are spirited into a whirlwind of wedding dresses as Carrie, now over 40, prepares for the wedding of all weddings. Carrie, in various wedding dresses, is featured in Vogue magazine as "The Last Single Girl." But as the wedding gets bigger and bigger, Mr. Big seems to get smaller and smaller until he, in true Mr. Big fashion, leaves Carrie at the altar.
And in true SATC fashion, Carrie's girls come to her rescue and spend her honeymoon with her in Mexico.
Aside from Carrie's woes, the marriage of Steve and Miranda hangs in the balance after Steve reveals that he has cheated on her, and Samantha ponders leaving her hot young boyfriend in a never-ending search for more hot young boyfriends.
Factor in the entrance of Carrie's new assistant, Louise, played by Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson, and you've got a whole lot, maybe too much, going on. But never fear, by the end of the movie, "all's well that ends well," and everyone seems to have a happy ending.
And I guess that's one of the reasons that I didn't enjoy the movie as much as I loved the series. I adored seeing all of my girls again but part of what I loved about the series was the angst of it all. For years, none of the girls could get the relationship thing right although they attacked the issue from four different angles.
And every week, you tuned in to find out if this was the week that one of them finally scored in the love department and, of course, lose yourself in the fashion and gratuitous nudity.
When the six-year series ended four years ago, it was gratifying to finally witness the "happily ever after" ending for all of the girls, but to see all the angst and "happily ever after" in just a few hours was just a wee bit unrealistic for me.
And yet, despite what reality TV purveyors would like us believe, television and movies are all about fantasy and fiction. Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha just aren't real, no matter what my heart says...
