Sex and the City (film)
Sex and the City (advertised as Sex and the City: The Movie) is a 2008 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Michael Patrick King in his feature film directorial debut.[2] It is a continuation of the 1998–2004 television series about four friends, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte York Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis), and Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon),[2] and their lives in New York City.
Sex and the City
Michael Patrick King
- Sarah Jessica Parker
- Michael Patrick King
- Darren Star
- John Melfi
- Sarah Jessica Parker
- Kim Cattrall
- Kristin Davis
- Cynthia Nixon
- Jennifer Hudson
- Candice Bergen
- Chris Noth
John Thomas
Michael Berenbaum
- May 12, 2008 (Leicester Square)
- May 30, 2008 (United States)
145 minutes[1]
United States
English
$65 million
$418.8 million
The world premiere took place at Leicester Square in London on May 15, 2008, and premiered on May 28, 2008, in the United Kingdom and on May 30, 2008, in North America. Despite mixed reviews from critics, calling the film an extended episode of the series, it was a commercial success, grossing over $415 million worldwide from a $65 million budget.
A sequel to the film, titled Sex and the City 2,[3] was released in 2010 to similar commercial success but even larger critical failure. A third film was announced in December 2016, but was ultimately cancelled and replaced by a sequel series, And Just Like That..., on HBO Max.[4]
Plot[edit]
Continuing a few years after the Sex and the City television series, Carrie Bradshaw and Mr. Big are in a committed relationship. Meanwhile, Charlotte York Goldenblatt is happily married to Harry, and the couple have adopted a Chinese girl named Lily, Miranda Hobbes has settled down in Brooklyn with Steve to raise their son, Brady together, and Samantha Jones has moved to Los Angeles to be close with Smith, though she flies back to New York as much as possible to spend time with Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda. Carrie and Mr. Big are planning to move in together, and find a penthouse far beyond their price range. Big offers to pay for it. Carrie offers to sell her own apartment, although she also fears that she'd have no legal rights to their home if they separate, as they are not married. To appease Carrie, Big suggests they marry.
Charlotte hires her longtime friend, Anthony Marantino, as the wedding planner. Carrie shows Anthony and Charlotte the vintage suit she plans to marry Big in, but no one except Carrie loves it. Carrie's Vogue editor Enid asks her to do the Vogue spread "The Last Single Girl". She tries on fancy couture gowns and is gifted one from Vivienne Westwood. She changes her mind and decides to wear it instead of the suit. The ensuing publicity blows up the small wedding to a huge affair, which makes Big increasingly uncomfortable.
Miranda has been so busy with work that she has not had sex with Steve for months. When he confesses he has cheated on her, a devastated Miranda immediately leaves him.
At Carrie and Big's rehearsal dinner, Steve tries to reconcile with Miranda, but she is still upset and tells Big bluntly that marriage ruins everything. On the wedding day, a stressed-out Big backs out. As a devastated Carrie flees the wedding, he quickly realizes his mistake and catches up with her, who furiously attacks him with the bouquet in the middle of the street.
Miranda tells Charlotte she may have upset Big, who dissuades her from telling Carrie, as he has always had doubts about marriage. To console Carrie, the women take her on the Mexican honeymoon, where they de-stress and collect themselves.
Upon returning to New York City, Carrie hires the assistant Louise to help her manage her life. She gets her apartment back, and Louise helps her put up her website. Charlotte, who is married to Harry and has adopted a Chinese girl named Lily, learns she is pregnant. She fears losing the baby, but Carrie reassures her.
On Valentine's Day, as Carrie and Miranda have dinner, she tells her that reading the Vogue article about her and Big's engagement made her realize she had made the wedding all about her. Miranda then confesses her negativity with Big at the rehearsal dinner. Carrie is furious she ruined her wedding. After a few days, Miranda gets her to talk, and begs for forgiveness; Carrie suggests she do the same for Steve. Miranda attends couples counseling with Steve and reconciles with Carrie and eventually Steve.
Meanwhile, as Samantha returns to LA, she is shown to be lonely, as Smith shoots films from morning until night. Watching her sexy neighbor Dante have sexual flings, she buys a dog, overeats and shops to distract herself. Finally admitting she misses her old single life, although she loves Smith, she breaks up with him and moves back to NYC. Meanwhile, Louise quits her job to move back to St. Louis and get married.
Later, Charlotte encounters Big, leaving her so outraged that her water breaks. He takes her to the hospital and stays until baby Rose is born, hoping to see Carrie. Harry tells Carrie that Big would like her to call him, having written to her frequently but never receiving a reply. She soon finds in Louise's files his many emails: letters copied from books she read to him before their wedding, culminating with one his own, apologizing and promising to love her forever.
Carrie goes to their penthouse to collect a pair of brand new Manolo Blahniks. She finds Big in the walk-in closet he had built for her, collecting the shoes for her, and they finally reconcile. After reflecting on how perfectly happy they were before talking about marriage, Big proposes again, using one of her crystal-encrusted shoes in place of a ring. They marry alone in a simple wedding in New York City Hall, with Carrie wearing the simple vintage suit. Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte turn up to surprise her, thanks to Big.
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
At the end of Sex and the City's run in 2004, there were indications of a film being considered following the series. HBO announced that Michael Patrick King was working on a possible script for the film which he would direct.[5] Later that year, Kim Cattrall declined to work on the project citing reasons that the script and the start date were overly prolonged and she decided to take other offers at hand.[6] As a result, the immediate follow-up ideas for the film were dropped.
It was in mid-2007 that the plans for making the film were announced again. This reportedly resulted after Cattrall's conditions being accepted along with a future HBO series.[7]
In May 2007 the project was halted after HBO decided it was no longer in a position to finance the film on its own. The project was pitched within the Time Warner family (owners of HBO) and was picked by sister concern New Line Cinema.
Filming[edit]
The film was prominently shot in New York between September–December 2007.[8][9] The locations included a number of places around Manhattan and a certain portion was shot in Steiner Studios and Silvercup Studios. The shooting was continually interrupted by paparazzi and onlookers with the security and police authorities employed in order to control the crowd.[10] Efforts were taken to keep the film's plot secret, including the shooting of multiple endings.[11] As a defense strategy, scenes shot in public or in presence of number of extras were termed by Ryan Jonathan Healy and the main cast as "dream sequences".[12]
Costumes[edit]
As in the TV series, fashion played a significant role in plot and production of the film. Over 300 ensembles were used over the course of the entire film.[13]
Patricia Field, who created costume designs for the series, also undertook the job in the film.[14]
Field has stated that she initially was ambivalent to do the film, for monetary and creative reasons.[15]
Field rose to fame particularly after designing for the series from 1998 to 2004, wherein she popularized the concept of using designer clothes with day-to-day fashion.
While dressing the characters for the film, Field decided to stay clear from the latest fashion trends defining the characters and instead focused on the evolution of individual character and the actor portraying it, over the last four years.[15] While Samantha's dressing was influenced by American TV soap opera Dynasty (see Nolan Miller), Jackie Kennedy was the inspiration for Charlotte's clothes. Miranda, according to Field, has evolved the most from the series in terms of fashion. This was influenced significantly by development in actress Cynthia Nixon in past years.[15]
Release[edit]
Premiere[edit]
The film's international premiere took place on May 12, 2008, at Odeon West End in London's Leicester Square to an audience of 1700.[20] It was next premiered at Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin on May 15.[21] The film had its New York City premiere at Radio City Music Hall on May 27, 2008.[22]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
The film was a commercial success. Opening in 3,285 theaters, the film made $26.93 million in the US and Canada on its first day. The three-day opening weekend total was $57,038,404, aggregating $17,363 per theater.[23] The film recorded the biggest opening ever for an R-rated comedy and for a romantic comedy, surpassing both American Pie 2 and Hitch,[24] and also for a film starring all women.[25] This was also the fifth-highest opening weekend for an R-rated film, behind The Matrix Reloaded, The Passion of the Christ, 300 and Hannibal.[26] As of March 2010, the film had grossed $152,647,258 at the US and Canadian box office, and $262,605,528 in other markets, bringing the worldwide total gross revenue to $415,252,786, making it the highest-grossing romantic comedy of 2008.[23]
Critical response[edit]
Sex and the City received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 49%, based on 182 reviews, with an average score of 5.70/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Sex and the City loses steam in the transition to the big screen, but will still thrill fans of the show."[27] Metacritic gave the film a normalized average score of 53 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[28]
Brian Lowry of Variety said the film "...feels a trifle half-hearted",[29] while Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times stated "the film tackles weighty issues with grace but is still very funny". She praised Michael Patrick King's work saying very few films "are willing to go to such dark places while remaining a comedy in the Shakespearean sense".[30]
Colin Bertram of the New York Daily News dubbed the film a "great reunion", and was happy with the return of "The 'Oh, my God, they did not just do that!' moments, the nudity, the swearing, the unabashed love of human frailty and downright wackiness".[31]
The Chicago Tribune's Jessica Reeves described it as "Witty, effervescent and unexpectedly thoughtful."[32]
Michael Rechtshaffen at The Hollywood Reporter praised the performances of the four leading ladies and said the film kept the essence of the series, but resembled a super-sized episode.[33]
Manohla Dargis of The New York Times found the film "a vulgar, shrill, deeply shallow — and, at 2 hours and 22 turgid minutes, overlong — addendum to a show",[34] while The Daily Telegraph's Sukhdev Sandhu panned the film saying "the ladies have become frozen, Spice Girls-style types - angsty, neurotic, predatory, princess - rather than individuals who might evolve or surprise us".[35] Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail slammed the film commenting on lack of script and adding that the characters "don't perform so much as parade, fixed in their roles as semi-animated clothes hangers on a cinematic runway". He gave the film zero stars out of four.[36] Anthony Lane, a film critic for The New Yorker, called the film a "superannuated fantasy posing as a slice of modern life"; he noted that "almost sixty years after All About Eve, which also featured four major female roles, there is a deep sadness in the sight of Carrie and friends defining themselves not as Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, Celeste Holm, and Thelma Ritter did—by their talents, their hats, and the swordplay of their wits—but purely by their ability to snare and keep a man....All the film lacks is a subtitle: "The Lying, the Bitch, and the Wardrobe."[37]
Ramin Setoodeh of Newsweek speculated that some of the criticism for the film is derived possibly from sexism: "when you listen to men talk about it (and this is coming from the perspective of a male writer), a strange thing happens. The talk turns hateful. Angry. Vengeful. Annoyed...Is this just poor sportsmanship? I can't help but wonder—cue the Carrie Bradshaw voiceover here—if it's not a case of 'Sexism in the City.' Men hated the movie before it even opened...Movie critics, an overwhelmingly male demographic, gave it such a nasty tongue lashing you would have thought they were talking about an ex-girlfriend...The movie might not be Citizen Kane—which, for the record, is a dude flick—but it's incredibly sweet and touching."[25]
The film featured on worst of 2008 lists including that of The Times,[38] Mark Kermode, The New York Observer,[39] the NME,[40] and The Daily Telegraph.[41]
Media releases[edit]
New Line Home Entertainment (distributed by Warner Home Video) released a DVD and Blu-ray release of Sex and the City: The Movie on September 23, 2008.[52] There are two versions of the film released in the US on home video. There is a standard, single disc theatrical cut (the version seen in theaters) which comes in fullscreen or widescreen (in separate editions). Both discs are the same, except for the film presentation. The only features are an audio commentary, deleted scenes, and a digital copy of the film. Also released on the same day as the standard edition is the two-disc special edition, which adds six minutes of footage to the film, along with the commentary from the standard edition DVD and a second disc that contains bonus features, as well as a digital copy of the widescreen theatrical version of the film. The only version of the film released on Blu-Ray is the two-disc extended cut, which is identical to the DVD version of the extended cut.
On December 9, 2008, New Line Home Entertainment released a third edition of Sex and the City: The Movie. This edition is a 4-disc set entitled Sex and the City: The Movie (The Wedding Collection). The four-disc set features the previously released extended cut of the film on the first disc, the second disc has the bonus features from the extended cut and three additional featurettes, the third disc holds even more special features, and the fourth is a music CD with songs inspired by the film, including the alternative mix of Fergie's "Labels or Love" from the beginning of the film. The set also comes with an exclusive hardcover book, featuring photos and quotes from the film, and a numbered certificate of authenticity in a pink padded box.
A fourth edition was also released in Australia. This set contained the two discs from the Sex and the City: The Movie Special Edition and a bonus 'Sex and the City Inspired' Clutch Bag. This clutch being black in color in a tile or snake skin material.
The DVD has reached the #1 on the UK DVD Top Chart and is the fastest selling DVD release of 2008 in the UK, selling over 920,000 copies in one week. It is way ahead of the 700,000 copies sold for Ratatouille which was, prior to Sex and the City's release, the best selling DVD of 2008 in the UK. Although the record has since been beaten by Mamma Mia!