The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (PG, 2005)

THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS follows four high school girl friends who separate for the summer and vow to keep in touch by way of a pair of blue jeans that magically fits all their different body sizes perfectly. They mail the jeans to one another, along with letters to keep up with what's happening in each other's lives. Lena (Alexis Bledel) is shy and quiet, on her way to Greece to visit relatives; aspiring documentary-maker Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) resents being stuck working at a local Wal-Mart-type store; golden girl Bridget (Blake Lively) is dealing with her mom's suicide and distant father as she heads to soccer camp in Mexico; and young writer Carmen (America Ferrera) goes to North Carolina to visit with her long-absent father, Al (Bradley Whitford), who announces he's about to marry Lydia (Nancy Travis), whose two blond teens seem complete opposites of Carmen. During their vacations, they explore their emerging sense of independence, while figuring out how to maintain relationships with their families and with each other, and each girl learns a valuable life lesson.

Based on Ann Brashares' novel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is sometimes sentimental and ultimately sensible, and it is respectful of its strong girl characters and its audience. The film introduces its protagonists as general types, but quickly grants them space to become interesting and complicated. The movie is about learning to appreciate what's in front of you as well as new experiences. But their most important lesson has to do with their mutual support and affection, which lasts over time.

Where too many movies treat a girl's losing her virginity as singularly traumatic or excessively romantic event, this one shows it as a difficult event from which she learns, recovers, and moves on. If its resolutions are at times too neat, the movie is also refreshingly frank, allowing the girls to be confused, perceptive, foolish, mad, and generous. Just like girls can be.