In light of movies like, Now and Then and The Ya-ya Sisterhood, I thought this, like its counterparts would just be another mushy nostalgic flick.  And yet, I was drawn to this like a magnet is drawn to north.  Hey, what can I say, I like mush! (I admit, I’m biased) And I love movies!  So I decided to grab its vcd copy at the nearest Video City.  And voila!  I was immediately reeled into the world of “…wild and unstoppable Bridget, kind and beautiful Lena, Tibby, the rebel and Carmen…” through whose eyes we see their story unfold.

Their first time apart for the summer, their stories are strung together by a pair of thrift shop pants who just “magically” happens to fit all four despite their height and size differences.  They got to keep the pants for a week each time, which they believed to bring the bearer--or in this case, the wearer good luck.   On the eve of their separation, they named themselves “Sisters of the Pants” and made a manifesto which they would follow while wearing the pants.  I like rule # 10 “Pants=love.  Love your sisters.  Love yourself.”   And that was what really happened, this simple rule reminded them of what was really important.  Their story reminded me of the story that could very well be our lives. That’s another plus about this movie, they are all in the present.  No nostalgic flash backs.  No old irrelevant black and white films in between.

For Lena, (love story aside, believe me some scenes were really overbearingly mushy) it was about finding that she was somebody beautiful just by herself, not by what others thought she was or who she wanted to be.  Always hiding behind a wall, I quote her poignant character: “…Maybe that’s what strikes me the most about Kostos( a native of Greece who lost both parents in a car accident when he was 12),  that despite everything he suffered, he could still look at life in the most uncomplicated way…Makes me so sad that people like Kostos and Bridget(lost her mom who committed suicide), who’ve lost everything, could still be open to love, while I, who’ve lost nothing cannot.”

Bridget’s “Single-minded to the point of recklessness” persona, does all the crazy stuff to try to escape by looking for the wrong relationships in the wrong places, as she longed to feel “alive”, just wanting to fill the pain left by her mother’s suicide.

Carmen had to deal with her father marrying into another family very unlike hers.  While she’s Puerto Rican, and dark haired, her father’s new family was very American and blonde.  But what she really had to face was that she couldn’t be honest and talk to her dad about her anger…and her questions…and her guilt about his leaving them.

Cynical and angry, Tibby was pouring all her angst in a documentary about losers and their lives of desperation, had a real awakening when wisdom came in the package of Bailey, a 12 year-old girl suffering from terminal leukemia.  I know, it sounds a bit of a cliché but something about facing death seems to make us think clearer about the worthwhile things in life.  Tibby realized that she had been angry at the world when she could have made the choice not to be, that there were bigger problems to face.  I feel that the real heroine in this movie was really Bailey, people just somehow come alive with Bailey.  She listened and encouraged people TO BE ALIVE.  She’d say something like “You know Baskin and Robbins? They hire these ice cream scientists whose job is to invent like 3 new flavors of ice cream in a month…You know who’d be good at something like that?...You!”  See what I mean, she just brings out the best in people! 

Bailey summed it all up in her last conversation with Tibby:

Tibby: You were right and I was wrong…I’m wrong about most people. 
Bailey: The important thing is that you always change your mind about them.

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Charity Oh is a medical technologist by training and a perpetual student of life by calling -- tasting its slices one bite at a time