The Biggest Sex of All

Last we saw the women of the hit HBO series Sex and the City – back on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2004 (yeah, I remember) – they’d all gotten the love.

Carrie Bradshaw’s lifelong quest for “real, ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can’t-live-without-each other love” had come to an end when, after six long years of on-off romance, Mr. Big finally told her she was the one.

Samantha Jones had beaten breast cancer and admitted that her boyfriend Smith Jerrod had meant more to her than any man she’d ever known.

Charlotte York-Goldenblatt’s life with husband Harry had gotten more blessed when their adoption of a Chinese baby girl went through, and Miranda Hobbes had settled nicely into her new life in Brooklyn with husband Steve and son Brady.

Four years later, Carrie & Co. are back, and I just couldn’t be more thrilled.

Sex and the City was a groundbreaking phenomenon in its premium-cable run, one that grew exponentially when it was adapted to air on basic cable.

Today marks another landmark in the Sex machine’s history: A much-anticipated film adaptation is opening – a remarkable feat considering that A) an earlier shot at transitioning to the silver screen soon after the series finale didn’t pan out, and B) Hollywood quite rarely banks on movies starring women over 40.

As Sex and the City opens at a theater near you, you must celebrate more than the return of four friends. You also must celebrate a Manolo Blahnik-high-heeled step in the right direction for an entire industry.

Cosmos for everyone!

But onto the business du jour.....

The movie acknowledges that time has passed and that these women are still living and thriving, as luminous as ever, older, and, yes, wiser.

Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) still is with John James Preston (Chris Noth), a.k.a. Mr. Big. She no longer writes her newspaper column, but still writes for Vogue and has in fact published two more books and is working on a fourth.

Samantha (Kim Cattrall) is in remission and now lives on the West Coast where she runs a talent management agency – her biggest client is Smith (Jason Lewis), with whom she lives in L.A. She’s even more successful than before, yet she feels disconnected from herself.

Meanwhile, Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is beyond happy – happy to the point where she feels guilty about it – and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) is grappling with an unfathomable betrayal.

Clocking at almost 2 ½ hours, Sex and the City is an ambitious movie.

I’m tickled to say veteran series writer-director Michael Patrick King really packed into it everything you ever could want it to have and more (even Carrie’s tutu makes a cameo) – fun, laughs, tears; joy, sadness, anger; shoes, bags, belts....

Oh yeah, you can’t talk Sex and the City without talking about the fashion. Costume designer Patricia Field has outdone herself, but the biggest, best trend the movie will spawn is love.

By the way – there’s a fundamental reason why Carrie always looks her best: she knows she can’t risk looking like a hamper had just thrown up on her should she run into an ex, which is what happened to me on my way to the movie. Really.

But I digress. And I haven’t even mentioned Jennifer Hudson’s pivotal turn as Louise, Carrie’s assistant. Ha – I guess I just did.

As the trailer, and countless Internet reports already revealed, including mine, Carrie and Mr. Big get engaged in the movie. She poses for Vogue as a beaming bride, which leads to a gorgeous and dramatic and voluminous Vivienne Westwood dress…and to the wedding getting bigger than Big.

Will our protagonist get her happy ending? That is the movie’s biggest crux, and, naturally, you’re going to have to watch it for the answer. Fans of the series definitely will not be disappointed, and they will feel like Carrie & Co. have come full circle. For that, this is the most satisfying Sex of all.

My Rating ****

Photo: New Line Cinema.