The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

In contrast to all the ways ‘Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants’ flouted the conventions of the teen genre – rejecting virginity morality stories, celebrating friendship rather than romance and confronting the anguish divorce can cause – this sequel sits in the middle of the road. It’s the summer after freshman year of college, and the conflicted would-be actress (America Ferrera), the reckless jock (Blake Lively), the moody misfit (Amber Tamblyn) and the shy artist (Alexis Bledel) are going their separate ways, planning to keep in touch as always by mailing a shared, mystical pair of jeans to one another. But the characters’ four stories don’t illuminate or contrast with each other: they’re a slapped-together patchwork that could have come from any halfway decent teen movie. The pants-wearing sisters don’t even seem to like each other any more. But let’s stay friends forever! This is passable, but compared to its predecessor, it’s a disappointment.