Watching SATC 2 in Tallinn

I'll begin with posting a link to this funny, somewhat accurate and rather harsh critique of the movie: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/burkas-and-birkins/Content?oid=4132715

Okay, the first film was a debacle. Following that and the bad reviews for part deux I wasn't too keen to sit through the second coming but the husband got us tickets (I think he sensed that I secretly wanted to watch it despite my reluctance) so off we went on a Friday night to catch the show.

The film has been criticised ad nauseum so I won't add to it, instead, I will stick to commenting on the experience of watching it. The majority of the audience were women comprising mainly of Sex and the City fans judging by the 'pink' girlie fashion on display. I tend to take the view that the films are a lot like giant balls of harmless fluff (akin to the overblown fantasy of Bollywood films) not to be taken too seriously. Saying that the current version at the theatre tries to comment on the sexual morality of the Middle East and falls into all the traps of portraying the 'other'. The trouble with perpetuating the popular stereotypes is that audiences who have never been to the Middle East tend to view these portrayals as true to life! I have never seen such strong emotional reactions to a film before( barring Indian celebrations of their cinema icons aka Rajnikanth etc) - the women in the audience were laughing out loud, cheering and clapping at the ludicrous antics of Carrie, Samantha etc. They seemed to empathise with these characters which is strange because I do not find them to be realistic in any way.

I found it a tad troubling when the women in the darkened hall cheered loudly at Samantha's insensitivity and open ridicule of a culture she (or they I should then presume) do not have the mental faculties to judge or understand. I found it alienating. The girl next to me looked at me strangely when I had to laugh at Carrie's agonised soul searching after having kissed Aidan. She looked at me as if to say how could I laugh at Carrie's predicament! Really was that meant to be a tragic moment!!! I could understand her despair at having been jilted at the altar in the first film but her selfish and immature behaviour is simply pathetic and almost comic.

So, either the audience had left their brains at home or they share Carrie's romantic and infantile conception of the East( Her quote from the film: 'I've always been fascinated by the middle east, you know, desert moons, magic carpets') and Samantha's naive view that all burqa clad women are oppressed and need American women to liberate them by singing karaoke, swearing and shaking condoms at bewildered sheiks!!! Islamophobia is a global reality and with films like these it is no little wonder that stereotypes abide.

The film on the surface is beguiling with its opulence but its misguided celebration of women all over the globe worshipping at the shrine of high fashion is a bit too much.

As Carrie and her crew escaped to NY their prejudices intact and their minds as narrow and shallow as ever it made me despair to hear the loud clapping as the credits rolled...

ps: And don't even get me started on the Asian men they had as their handmaids!!!:)