Chapel Cinema: Sex & the City? Love & Los Anchorage

Posted by brideblog

Posted: July 1, 2008 - 1:15 pm

I admit it. When “Sex & the City” opened at the theatre near me, after weeks of build-up, trailers, and NPR promotional stories, I too was “carried away” in anticipation of seeing Carrie Bradshaw and her friends accompanied by covert cocktails and my friends for Ladies’ Movie Night Out in Eagle River. My girls and I set the date, made arrangements for the dogs to be let out (thanks, Brian), assigned Operation: Lemon-Drop logistics and Solo cup provisions, and I packed my fancy heels in the car --- it was an occasion worth stepping up for. Of course I wouldn’t change into them until I was safely pass the gravel-strewn and pot-marked parking lot and inside the theatre lobby. This is Ladies’ Night in Alaska.

I won’t give away too much for those of you who haven’t seen it. Put it this way, if you know and love the show, you’ll enjoy a two-hour feature of it --- like watching two hours of back-to-back episodes on TBS. There isn’t an episode you haven’t seen four times already, but you watch it again. The same way people dance to “Shout” at a wedding. You know you should be doing something better with your time, but it’s hard to resist.

This movie classifies as chapel cinema since the movie opens with the wedding planning for the much anticipated wedding between Carrie and Mr. Big. (Not giving anything away, don’t worry.) No matter what phase of your engagement, marriage, singlehood you are in, it’s difficult not to find the “Carrie/Miranda/Samantha/Charlotte/Which Sex&theCity-Girl-Are-You” saga, in a word, cathartic. I recommend complimenting your cinema outing with cocktails.

Stop reading here if you don’t want the movie spoiled. I’m about to spoil it. First, some pop-up movie trivia…

Fellow movie going friend and neighborhood horticulturist pointed out that a typically prepared wedding bouquet would never “explode” like that. Bouquets normally have very fresh and young blossoms, unlike Carrie’s roses which were all wide open. So if you brides-to-be out there are thinking of trying this stunt on your groom when he ticks you off at the chapel, you’ll have to plan ahead and pre-violate your flowers. Your florist has no intention of giving you a loosely spun and over-bloomed bouquet.

The movie ends with (…you should have already stopped reading if you don’t want the movie spoiled, but for real, you should stop now… it’s hard to resist, I know… sort of like dancing to “Shout” at weddings…) a reference back to a scene in the beginning when Carrie shared with Mr. Big her love and admiration for love letters and her inquiry as to why he has never written her one. She’s reading a book in bed, containing a collection of love letters during their mild quarrel. To win her back, Mr. Big sends her via e-mail a cornucopia of love letters that of course she doesn’t discover until the end, all of which he has copied directly from her book.

To this I say, Boooooooo. Develop some creativity and grow a pair, Mr. Big. Love letters are magical because they reveal the individuals attempt to find words beyond and besides, “I love you.” It’s not easy. Even though everyone’s experience of love is particular to that pair of individuals, one thing remains the same: there’s nothing quite like it and nothing so powerful.

I feel very, very fortunate to share that not only has my fiancé sent me a love letter or two during our courtship (sorta how we fell in love: as pen-pals), but while I was off gallivanting at the movies in my high heels with my girlfriends, Brian was at home, baking a carrot cake and packing the car for a surprise camping trip for my birthday two days later.

Love letters are great, but you know you’ve got someone special when he bakes you a cake. Even if it’s from a box. And don’t forget the icing. In a can.

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