If you’re in the mood for something lighter than an alien invasion, check out the film version of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Based on the blockbuster teen novel by Ann Brashares, the movie focuses on four lifelong friends Carmen, Tibby, Lena and Bridget and their first summer apart. Before they go their separate ways, the girls promise to rotate a pair of thrift store jeans that somehow fits each of their very different bodies. Amber Tamblyn of Joan of Arcadia leads the cast in a film adaptation that’s consistently faithful to the book’s heartwarming portrayal of teen friendships. Over the summer, the jeans help each girl through a series of adventures. Tibby (played by Tamblyn) stays at home in Washington, D.C., and befriends a young boy with cancer; for Carmen, a trip to South Carolina to visit her father turns out much differently than she had planned; Lena (played by Gilmore Girls favorite Alexis Bledel) travels to Greece and comes into her own; while Bridget flirts with disaster at a soccer camp in Mexico. Each girl has a different story to tell, but the traveling pants keep the girls and the film tied together beautifully.
Valiant Women is a vital and engrossing attempt to correct the record and rightfully celebrate the achievements of female veterans of World War II.
