The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: Critic Reviews

The more roles that go to the fresh, charming, untabloidy Pants cast, the better.

Like the four teenage girls at its center, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants makes up in charm what it lacks in sophistication.

It's heartening to see a movie about teenage girls that is concerned with serious questions and avoids the pettiness that filmmakers tend to ascribe to young women of that age.

The emotional story and fine acting are enough to make this a must-see movie for teen girls. The real surprise is that they can make a grown man cry.

That rare meal both adolescent girls and their mothers will be able to agree on.

The multiple story lines can feel choppy, but the dialogue has snap, and the pants' powers never distract from the teenagers' emotions.

For the legions of fans of the book, this movie is one-size-fits-all. The rest of us will have to keep shopping.

It's unfair to pigeonhole this meaningful human story in that genre, especially since it feels more real than some adult chick flicks. Besides, a good story is a good story.

Ken Kwapis and his exquisitely cast young ensemble preserve the essence of the tale about girls whose friendship is bigger than their differences.

The real backbone of Sisterhood comes from the actresses playing the friends, and the fifth-wheel surprise of Jenna Boyd.

The film is filled with positive messages ...

This Sisterhood is real pleasure, a big-hearted movie where a group of gifted actresses find opportunities most younger movie stars can only dream about.

The relationships and performances are strong and moving, with an effect both breezy-fun and profound.

Temperamentally, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is like the Beatles, with jeans. Cinematically, it is like the Ya-Yas, with Livestrong bracelets.

What could have turned into a featherweight teenybopper movie matures into a lot more.

The young ladies all perform well, the script is like a well-built tear-duct milking machine, and parents should be pleased their kids are going to see such well-intentioned drivel instead of the mean-spirited drivel that's far more prevalent.

It's warm, endearing, upbeat and fast-moving. It presents likable, goofy characters who confront adult issues that teens often face.

Sticking fairly close to the 2001 novel, co-scenarists Delia Ephron and Elizabeth Chandler preserve its strengths as a complex adolescent soap operasoap opera leavened by humor, warmth and empathy.

In a season of overhyped blockbusters, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is a genuine sleeper that deserves to find an audience.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants plays to everybody's inner weepy teenage girl. And that's not such a bad thing.

Kudos to a movie that encourages girls -- and everyone else -- to accept their bodies, to forgive their friends and family and to live their lives to the fullest.

I am unquestionably not a member of the target demographic for Ken Kwapis' The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, but that didn't prevent me from enjoying it.

Director Ken Kwapis coaxes convincing performances out of his youthful cast.

Working from a deft script by Delia Ephron, director Ken Kwapis labors hard so that guys won't cringe (too much) as four teen girls, of different body types, pass along the same pair of lucky jeans during a summer of love and loss.

It's the girly equivalent of a midsummer Bruckheimer extravaganza -- a roller-coaster ride to the edge of total (emotional, natch) devastation that makes the happy ending that much more reassuring and cozy.