The long-awaited Sex and the City sequel was filled with laughter as Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte (Kristin Davis), and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) reunited for their first vacation since Carrie's ill-fated Mexican honeymoon two years earlier.
The film opens up with a monologue by Carrie as she reflects on how she met her three best girlfriends in the days of Studio 54 -- B.C. (Before Carrie). It was both charming and humorous. There's a wedding scene where Liza Minelli makes a cameo appearance and both officiates the ceremony and sings Beyonce's "Single Ladies." One can't help but hum along.
Where the sequel differs from the original is that 3 out of 4 women are now married. Their lives have become realistic and stressful. Carrie's glamorous life has become humdrum with her husband, Big (Chris Noth) wanting to stay home and watch TV. She yearns for the life she once had. Did the grass become greener for all the girls when the lives they dreamed of became a reality? The only one who remained true to the original character is Samantha. Now, at 52, she's dealing with the stress of menopause with her various vitamin concoctions to help turn back her clock and keep her sex life alive.
As I watched the film, I couldn't help but ask myself, should one kiss and tell? Carrie meets up with her long-lost love Aidan (John Corbett), thousands of miles away from New York. Was it serendipity? Did it mean something? These were questions she asked herself. Both of them, now married to others, "played with fire" so they said, and went on a dinner date in Abu Dhabi. There's a reason she never committed to Aidan. She followed her heart into the arms of Mr. Big. There's also something romantic about running into an old flame while on vacation. It can be very sexy and tempting. Things sometimes happen on vacation that you wouldn't think of doing while at home. Rules are more easily broken and minds tend to wander a little bit easier.
Carrie and Aidan ended up kissing in a moment of passion. It was just one kiss. It went nowhere. She felt guilty immediately. She felt so guilty that she convinced herself that she needed to call her husband right away to let him know.
Her supportive girlfriend network disagreed. Charlotte tells her to sleep on it. Miranda reflects when Steve (David Eigenberg) told her about his one-night only affair to relieve his guilt in the original film. Miranda wasn't happy about it. She didn't think she needed to know. Steve felt a weight lifted off his shoulders and it took Miranda months to recover. Carrie's guilt in the film carries her away. The next day she calls her now-devoted husband, Mr. Big, from Abu Dhabi to tell him about her kiss with Aidan.
Is one simple kiss considered cheating? Would you want to know if your significant other or spouse embraced in a simple kiss with an old flame that went nowhere? At what point have you crossed the line? Would you really want to know? Does it help or hurt the relationship to come clean? How long will it take for your relationship to recover? These are questions that couples deal with in matters of the heart. I tend to agree with Carrie's girlfriend network. If she truly felt that badly about it, she should make sure it wouldn't happen again. To kiss and tell, or not to tell. Should you keep one moment like this to yourself and have it remain as a distant memory?
The film opens up to the public on May 27, 2010. There will be several midnight screenings the evening before and tickets are now on sale.