The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants review

Based on Ann Brashares’s popular US novel for teenage girls, this has ‘girlie weepie’ written all over it. It may occasionally look like a comedy, but you just know there are going to be touchy-feely moments that require whole boxes of hankies. Four teenage gal pals are going to be separated for the first time one summer – Lena (Bledel) is heading to Greece, where she will fall in love for the first time, Bridget (Lively) is going to soccer camp, Carmen (Ferrera) is off visiting her dad, while Tibby (Tamblyn) is stuck at home, stacking supermarket shelves and befriending a little girl. What binds them – and the various strands of the story – is a pair of jeans that the girls think are magical (they fit each girl, even though they have very different figures), and which they pass between them over the summer months.

This rises above the average junior chick flick by having some smart dialogue, realistic characters and, especially, four enjoyable performances from the leads. They’re all a bit too cute for real life, of course – the film looks like a Gap ad (even though the magical jeans are actually Levis!) – but when has that ever mattered to film-makers?