The four girls in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" make a pact. (46){{U}}Having found the magic every woman dreams of, a pair of jeans that fits all four of them perfectly, they vow to share them long-distance during their first summer apart.{{/U}}
The jeans must be magic, because the girls' shapes couldn't be more different. Petite Lena (Alexis Bledel) is allergic to boys who see her as a beautiful face. Witty Carmen (America Ferrera ) is too curvy to fit into the bridesmaid's gown ordered for her by Lydia (Nancy Travis), the Southern bride-to-be of her divorced father (Bradley Whitford). Bridget (Blake Lively), a lanky star athlete, has never come to terms with her mother's suicide. (47) {{U}}And Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) is a blue-haired cynic whose summer job at a superstore named Wallman's is paying for video equipment to make her first film.{{/U}}
(48){{U}}The girls pass the jeans around to bring them luck when they are separated: Lena with relatives on Santorini where Kostas (Michael Rady) changes her mind about men; Carmen with the father she never sees, whose new family is a shock; Bridget in a Mexican soccer camp, where she sets her sights on Eric(Mike Vogel), forbidden fruit because he's a coach; and Tibby videotaping her co-workers.{{/U}} "A documentary," says one interview subject. "That's like a movie, only boring?"
Delia Ephron and Elizabeth Chandler's screenplay is nicely served by the direction of a comedy veteran, Ken Kwapis.(49) {{U}}He creates a fairytale summer world where the girls grapple with real issues: love and family, death, losing your virginity for the wrong reasons, divorce, racism and having an unfashionable body type. {{/U}}(50){{U}}The magic, of course is in the girls, as they help each other achieve insights that few of their elders could manage. gently sprinkled sprinkled with tears.{{/U}} Ann Brashares, who wrote the novel on which the film is based, has written two more books about the Sisterhood. If this one clicks, Warner Bros may find itself the proud owner of the first summer film franchise for teenage girls.