Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 23 July 05.

Overall comments and recommendations

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants , based on the best selling novel of Ann Brashares, is a ‘coming of age' movie, following the summer holiday stories of four teenage friends. The device of telling the four girls' differing experiences allows the exploration of many important themes for this age group, all of which are handled in a sensitive and subtle way. The four main actors and the younger supporting cast are engaging, and adults will appreciate the quality of their acting. The settings for the storylines are well drawn and in particular the backdrop to the scenes in the Greek Iles is spectacular. For the target audience of young girls and teenagers, the attractive lead characters and themes of friendships and growing up will be appealing.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

While preparing to go on different summer holidays, four teenage friends go shopping together. Despite their different shapes and sizes, Tibby (Amber Tamblyn), Lena (Alexis Bledel), Carmen (America Ferrera) and Bridget (Blake Lively) manage to find a ‘magical' pair of jeans that fits them all perfectly. After buying them, they decide to form the ‘Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants'—the jeans will be sent to each girl a week at a time, uniting them whether ‘together or apart' and hopefully bringing good fortune for the wearer.

Lena , artistic and diffident, travels to stay with her grandparents in Greece . Here she meets and falls in love with Costas (Michael Rady). The relationship allows her to gain a sense of self and confidence. However, a longstanding feud between their families, and Costas' impending departure back to Athens, threatens to break them apart.

Tibby, rebel and cynic, takes on an unsatisfying job at a supermarket to earn money to support her burgeoning film-making career. She meets twelve year old Bailey (Jenna Boyd), who becomes Tibby's assistant in the making of a documentary about the town's locals. Tibby discovers that Bailey has leukaemia and realises how much Bailey has impacted on her life.

Bridget, confident and athletic, travels to Mexico for a summer soccer clinic. She notices and pursues a young soccer coach, Eric, disregarding the rules forbidding this. Bridget's mother has died and her distant relationship with her father leaves her longing for closeness with others. This culminates in her first sexual experience, which confuses her further and makes her wish all the more that she had her mother to talk to.

Carmen, who is half Puerto Rican, looks forward to spending some one-to-one time with her father over the holidays. Her expectations are dashed when her father (Bradley Whitford) suddenly tells her that he is now living with his fiancée (Nancy Travis) and her two teenage children. Though welcomed warmly, Carmen feels increasingly out of place and that her father has ‘traded her in for something better'. After a disastrous expedition for wedding outfits, Carmen runs away and returns to her mother's home. She feels unable to attend the rapidly approaching wedding.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is only one violent scene when Carmen, having run away, returns to her father's home one evening and sees through a window that her father and soon-to-be step-family are sitting down to dinner, instead of searching for her. She gets angry and throws a rock at the dining room window.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Although there are no overtly scary scenes, there are many themes which could disturb very young children, as all of the main characters have some experience with loss:

• Costas tells Lena that both his parents were killed
• Tibby finds Bailey unconscious in the supermarket and then discovers that she has leukaemia. Later scenes in the movie show a pale and weak Bailey attached to a drip in hospital and Bailey and Tibby talking about the fear of dying. Although not mentioned directly, we know that that night Bailey dies and Tibby is very saddened by this.
• Carmen is very upset by the feeling that she no longer fits into her father's life and runs away. When she calls him later to say how she feels, she is very distressed.
• Bridget struggles to cope with her mother's death. Although never directly mentioned, it is apparent that her mother had depression and that her death may have been related to this. Bridget experiences a heightened sense of loss and confusion after her first sexual experience and is very upset as a result.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

The above-mentioned scenes could also disturb susceptible children and adolescents between the ages of eight and thirteen.

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

There are no scenes in this movie that would be scary for older children; however, the movie does raise some very interesting issues that older teenagers might benefit from discussing.

Sexual references

There are a couple of discreet sexual references in this movie:

• Lena tells the girls (specifically Bridget) that the ‘traveling pants' can only be removed by the person wearing the pants. Bridget pretends to the be insulted by this comment.
• Eric joins Bridget by the beach one night and they are shown to kiss. Bridget returns later to her bed. The next morning she writes Lena referring to ‘her first time' and that it wasn't what she was hoping for.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no explicit nudity or sexual activity. However, there is some implied:

• When trying on the ‘traveling' jeans, both Bridget and Carmen are shown in their underwear. In a later scene, Lena strips down to her underwear before diving into the sea.
• While in the Greek Iles, Lena observes a few young men applying suntan lotion onto the back of some topless girls.
• Bridget lets her hair down and pours water over herself in an attempt to catch Eric's attention.
• Bridget experiencing her ‘first time' with Eric.

Use of substances

There are a few instances of substance use:

• One of the older women at Tibby's workplace is shown smoking during a break. None of the younger characters smoke.
• The father of Carmen's new ‘step-siblings' is reported to be an alcoholic in a rehab facility, but is never shown.
• Bridget and some of her soccer friends go to a bar (cantina), but none of the characters are shown to consume alcohol.

Coarse language

There is some occasional mild coarse language and name calling, including:

• you're a pain in the ass
• ass
• scares the hell out of me
• everything is screwed
• screw the world.

The movie's message

The movie's main message is about the importance of enduring friendships and loyalty when everything all around is changing. There are also messages about self-respect, accepting yourself for who you are, seizing life's opportunities, and looking for the best in everything and everyone.

Values parents may wish to encourage include:

• Friendship and loyalty
• Endurance through adversity
• Accepting yourself (and others), no matter what your appearance or beliefs.
• Looking for, and bringing out the best in people
• Forgiveness
• Younger male characters were shown to care for and treat girls with respect.
• Step-families interacting positively.

Parents could take the opportunity to discuss with their older children and teenagers the following values and attitudes:

• Not being a team-player
• Being too forward / reckless
• Lying and disobedience to parents and grandparents; breaking the rules.
• Using violence when angry
• Riding motorbikes/mopeds without helmets.