Sex and the City 2 – a not so sexy review

Charlotte: “How do the moms who have no help do it?” 

Miranda: “I have no f***ing idea.” 

Miranda: “Being a mother kicks your ass.” 

Charlotte: “My first thought when I heard Samantha say Harry might cheat on me with Erin was,”Oh my god, I can’t lose the nanny!” 

 

We hate writing this because we loved the series and were mostly amused by the first movie, but here is our take on the SATC2 movie: It was really bad; the acting was bad, the plot was bad, and the subplots were bad…. 

Except one. 

Charlotte, who only ever wanted to be a wife and mother since the show began and now has everything she could want to fulfill her – loving husband, two children, wealth and a full-time nanny – was struggling as the “perfect” wife and mother. 

FINALLY, something in this ridiculous movie was real. 

Granted, not so real that she admitted it while sitting in a $22,000 a night suite in the middle east, but every mom we know who has seen the movie (and that is a significantly smaller number than the moms who saw SATC 1) could relate to the frustrations Charlotte was experiencing.  (Big and Carrie struggling in year two of their marriage was ho-hum, Samantha and pre-menopause, hmmm…all right, and Miranda hating her job, well, we could understand that.) 

But Charlotte’s struggle was universal, right there on her butt, in chocolate, in the shape of her daughter’s hand. (True, wearing a white vintage skirt while cooking  – not so real.)  But what is it about a stressed out mom, affluent or not, single or married, working or stay at home, that moms everywhere can relate to?  Who hasn’t had a child ruin a favorite piece of clothing or cry for hours and hours while nothing and no one appeases them, or felt ashamed to admit they were fighting just to find the time to take a shower much less keep it all together? 

In the scene where Charlotte and Miranda are “taking a sip” (scroll down a bit for the actual clip) and coming clean about their struggles with motherhood was eerily familiar.  And when Charlotte exclaims that given the choice between her husband and her nanny, she just might choose the nanny, we were incredulous and at the same time, thought, “We know how you feel, sister.” 

Photo by Gina Rogers

 

From Margot: 

My husband and I work full-time outside our home.  We both love our careers – but even with time away from my kids during the day, there are times when I reach the point that Charlotte did – I want to close myself in my pantry and cry.  Even though my parents live with my husband and me and help with our kids (and we all love this fact) there are times when it still happens. 

From Kanesha: 

My mother-in-law supports me greatly in taking care of the kids when my hubby’s home, when he’s away on travel, or when I’m away on travel. It’s a comfort to know that I can keep things running, albeit in “safe-mode”, and not go insane at the same time. Sometimes when hubby is home and my mother-in-law is on travel, I really want her to hurry home because she’s a nice buffer when I need a break from the kids AND hubby! 

So we guess the lesson here is that no matter what, motherhood, while the greatest joy and privilege we have ever experienced, can still drive a woman to drink!  (And bring purse cocktails to a BAD movie!). 

Listen to a snippet of Kanesha and Margot’s conversation. 

Kanesha_Margot_SATC2_chat.wav