Publication Date: 08-25-2025

Sex and the City (2008) review

Dir. Michael Patrick King

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

I elected to watch the entire series of Sex and the City whilst I was in college and needed something to help pass the time. Four-to-ten hour radio shifts over the course of the winter and summer demand some kind of additional entertainment, and my required reading for school wasn’t always good for keeping me awake. I got way more invested in the series than I ever expected, and continue to adore the fact that it remains a strong cultural touchstone for my generation. That’s why when my girlfriend, Catherine, who hadn’t seen it, vocalized that she wanted to watch it, I couldn’t bypass the opportunity to revisit it.

Months of binging have brought us back to the first Sex and the City movie. This is my third viewing of the film, but the first time I’ll attempt to write a review. Released in 2008, four years after the HBO series had concluded, the film was an exorbitant financial success, and as far as I can tell, has been mostly received with warmth from devoted fans such as myself. While this is one of the instances where a show’s jump to the big screen is best suited for loyal fans, I do believe Sex and the City could be enjoyed by someone unfamiliar with the series. The opening prologue phenomenally condenses the series to a five-minute recap; not an easy feat for a program with six seasons and more-than-90-episodes. I should know. I first saw it before watching a full episode.

Nearly two-and-a-half-hours long, with a multitude of subplots, happenings, reveals, and characters all sharing the same orbit, the basic gist of the picture revolves around the marriage of columnist Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and financier Mr. Big (Chris Noth). The two decide, in very unremarkable fashion, to get married when they decide to move into a penthouse together, and Carrie begins to worry about what rights to the home she’ll have as an unmarried woman should they split (as they so often do). So, they go from their on-again-off-again cycle to planning a marvelous wedding together.

Meanwhile, publicist Samantha (Kim Cattrall) has uprooted from New York to Los Angeles with her lover, Smith (Jason Lewis), who is now a recurring presence on a TV show. Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Harry (Evan Handler) have adopted a little Chinese daughter, while Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) navigates a massive crisis and breach-of-trust with her husband, Steve (David Eigenberg).

The script — written by director Michael Patrick King, who was one of the showrunners on the series — is an onslaught of developments both major and minor, but it’s not unlike watching four-of-five episodes in a row, which, as you might know, is very easy to do in an evening. Of course, Carrie’s friends Stanford (Willie Garson) and Anthony (Mario Cantone) are by her side to help her pick a real wedding dress when she seemingly settles on a Plain Jane one. Later, Carrie hires a publicist named Louise (Jennifer Hudson), a green-romantic in her early 20s who moved to the Big Apple to find love. She tells Carrie about a Netflix-esque company for designer bags and shoes, and Carrie clearly sees herself in the young woman, who had no idea about real heartbreak when she was once in Louise’s (rented) shoes. Hudson is such a lovely character, warm and amiable; someone who would’ve been a welcomed presence on the show, but perhaps retains such charm because we haven’t seen her act on impulse (or, like Carrie, end up with the wrong person).

Most of King’s plot developments are thoughtful and well-executed. The wedding blow-up between Carrie and Mr. Big remains heartbreaking as ever, right down to Davis’ Charlotte coming to Carrie’s defense in a moment that still merits a rewind. The ensuing “honeymoon” in Mexico is dispiritingly sad, but also realistic in its intimate portrayal of Carrie’s prolonged feelings of hurt and anhedonia. Furthermore, it’s Miranda who is stuck in a similar mental fog for much of the film, dealing with the potential fallout of her marriage with Steve and unchecked guilt over what she perceives was a contribution to Mr. Big’s pivot at the alter.

King’s one crucial misstep is how he handles the end of Samantha and Smith’s relationship. Simply put, there was no good reason for this relationship to end, especially the way it does. Smith’s indiscretion is one that we could’ve seen Samantha get over after an evening of pouting and a following evening of hot sex. Seeing it end not only feels perfunctory, but unwarranted, as their level of domesticity was still appropriate given Samantha’s perpetual desire for independence and career advancement.

145 minutes is admittedly an absurd runtime, and the result is a film that occasionally feels overstuffed, and at worst, numbing. That said, if you’ve watched the series to completion, it’s hard to be too upset about another hurrah with Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha, four characters who were all richly developed, their charms, auras, flaws, and foibles all put on display at one point or another. The first film adaptation of Sex and the City succeeds in furthering both the entertainment and effervescence of one of the all-time great HBO original series.

My review of Sex and the City 2

Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Chris Noth, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler, Jason Lewis, Jennifer Hudson, Willie Garson, Mario Cantone, and Candice Bergen. Directed by: Michael Patrick King.