A suicide that took place before the movie begins continues to affect the characters. Someone is conked in the head with a tennis ball. Someone throws a rock at a window in anger. A 12-year-old girl has leukemia. Tibby visits the girl in the hospital, who appears to be very sick.
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Friendship, family, acceptance, loyalty, and a pair of pants hold together the different summer experiences of four great high school friends. The girls demonstrate self-sacrifice, empathy, and understanding as they support each other through difficult experiences. Additional themes include communication and compassion.
Positive Role Models
a lot
Away at soccer camp, Bridget pursues her college-age coach. They have offscreen sex, but both show maturity after, judging that they went too far too soon. Lena learns to stand up for herself. Carmen overcomes the pain of her father's remarriage, and Tibby drops her protective outer shell.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is based on the book by the same name. Friendship, family, acceptance, loyalty, and a pair of pants hold together the different summer experiences of four close high school friends. The teen characters deal with difficult issues, including a parent's suicide, the disease and death of a close friend, a father's remarriage, seduction, and first-time sex (this last is indicated rather than depicted explicitly). The film includes tense family scenes, with a focus on reconciliation after angry flare-ups. Characters use some mild profanity (including "suck" and "ass"), and they drink. The girls demonstrate self-sacrifice, empathy, and understanding as they support each other through difficult experiences. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
Although I believe girls 13 and above would be okay reading this book (with perhaps parental footnote) which I will explain later. This book was recommended summer reading for my 10 year old. That is way too young. This book is told in the POV of four 15-16 year old girls. There is drinking, skinny-dipping, death, suicide. Shall I say more?
Okay I will. The most disturbing part for me was a 15 year old girl seducing her 19 year old soccer coach. I believe in this country that is considered Statutory Rape. And okay, while as an adult, I can understand the nuances, and the lesson the girl learned, and the apologies made, and the regret, and ALL that. Here is the problem. While it dealt with her emotional regret, it never mentioned if the guy wore a condom, or the fact that sometimes in life, having sex can lead to deeper consequences like Sexually Transmitted Disease OR Pregnancy.
So for me, this was an irresponsible bit of literature.
Katherine R.Parent of 12, 14, 18+, 18+, 18+ and 5-year-old
July 30, 2024
age 13+
What's the Story?
THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS follows four high school girlfriends who separate for the summer and vow to keep in touch by way of a pair of blue jeans that magically fits all their different body sizes perfectly. They mail the jeans to one another, along with letters to keep up with what's happening in each other's lives. Lena (Alexis Bledel) is shy and quiet, on her way to Greece to visit relatives; aspiring documentary-maker Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) resents being stuck working at a local Wal-Mart-type store; golden girl Bridget (Blake Lively) is dealing with her mom's suicide and distant father as she heads to soccer camp in Mexico; and young writer Carmen (America Ferrera) goes to North Carolina to visit with her long-absent father, Al (Bradley Whitford), who announces he's about to marry Lydia (Nancy Travis), whose two blond teens seem complete opposites of Carmen. During their vacations, they explore their emerging senses of independence, while figuring out how to maintain relationships with their families and each other, and each girl learns a valuable life lesson.
Based on Ann Brashares' novel of the same name, this movie is sometimes sentimental and ultimately sensible, and it's respectful of its strong girl characters and its audience. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants introduces its protagonists as general types but quickly grants them space to become interesting and complicated. The movie is about learning to appreciate what's in front of you as well as new experiences. But their most important lesson has to do with their mutual support and affection, which lasts over time.
Where too many movies treat a girl's losing her virginity as a singularly traumatic or excessively romantic event, this one shows it as a difficult event from which she learns, recovers, and moves on. If its resolutions are at times too neat, the movie also is refreshingly frank, allowing the girls to be confused, perceptive, foolish, mad, and generous -- just like girls can be.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants's depiction of loyalty and loss, especially as each of the girls loses something precious but also gains experience and faith in herself and her best friends. How do you support your friends when they feel sad or angry?
How can you be mad at someone but also, at the same time, still love him or her? How can loss also be an occasion for learning, sharing, and emotional maturation?
How does the movie compare to the book? Do the characters appear the way you imagined?
The girls make some mistakes but ultimately learn from them. Do you consider them role models? Which character did you identify with most?
MPAA explanation:
thematic elements, some sensuality and language
Last updated:
December 26, 2023
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