What It Feels Like For a Girl - Sex and the City - ****

It's a mark of the impression four women from New York city have made on the minds of audiences worldwide that this movie begins with a brief history of what happened to each of the characters over a period of six seasons, with a "you already know all this, but.." tone.

Indeed, establishing Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte is quite unnecessary, even to those who have not followed the TV show (including the men who religiously avoid it). It is a credit to the fantastic acting prowess of Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis that they bring such a sense of familiarity to their characters. In other words, there are universal qualities and flaws about them that form the basis of their humanness in general, as well as their gender in particular.

The movie begins where season six ended, with Carrie (Parker) and her on-again, off-again, but very much The One boyfriend, Big (Chris Noth) hunting for an apartment in the Big Apple to move into. After much searching, they find the perfect place, and despite the fact that it is well outside their already large budgets, they immediately decide to take it. When Carrie expresses anxiety about what might happen to the place if they were to break up again, Big suggests that they get married.

While Carrie plans the wedding of her dreams and is asked to do a photo shoot for Vogue in bridal gowns designed by the biggest names in fashion, Miranda (Nixon) struggles to keep her marriage to husband, Steve (David Eisenberg), alive, as the demands of her job and motherhood
take a toll on their sex life. At the rehearsal dinner for Big and Carrie, Miranda bitterly lets slip her frustration with marriage, thus instantly freezing the bridegroom's feet, and resulting in Carrie being left at the altar on the day of the wedding.

A broken-hearted Carrie, accompanied by her four friends goes to Mexico on what would have been her and Big's honeymoon, to recuperate. While there, Samantha expresses her frustration with being in a committed relationship with Smith (Jason Lewis), an actor turned model who helped her get through her battle with cancer, and the tediousness of having to travel between Los Angeles and New York frequently. Of the four, only Charlotte seems happy, but worries when she gets her next piece of happy news that it is all only too good to last.

Those with high expectations from the movie might find at one point that it just seems like one really long episode, for all the individual struggles of each of the characters seem to demand attention. Even Jennifer Hudson, who appears in a brief role as Carrie's assistant, has problems that demand some screen time, but frankly, for an actress of her caliber, it is well deserved.

However, setting whatever tediousness one might feel aside, it is again the familiarity of the characters, their unique distinguishing quirks and mannerisms, and the universality of their struggles that make this film something that is bound to be rented at every sleepover and girls' night out for several years to come.

As for explaining what makes the film special to the reluctant men who worry their masculinity will be questioned if they watch this film, here's a line you could try that I used on my husband - you know how they say, men will be boys? Well, this is educational, because it shows you that women will be girls.