Four out of five stars

You might think that a coming-of-age film about four teenaged girls that showcases a single pair of pants as its central motif would be either silly or sexually explicit. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, remarkably, is neither. Based quite closely on the Anne Brasheres best-selling young adult novel, the story revolves around four almost-sixteen-year-old hitherto inseparable friends during the summer of their first separation. Lena (Alexis Bledel), the beautiful wallflower, is off to Greece to visit her grandparents. Carmen (America Ferrera), the brainy offspring of a Puerto Rican mother and a WASPy father, will be spending the whole summer with her dad for the first time. Bridget (Blake Lively), the tall blond athlete, is going to soccer camp and Tibby (Amber Tamblyn), the sarcastic rebel, is going to work at the local discount store in order to fund her film about ordinary life (a "sucku-mentary).

How will they keep in touch? On the eve of their separation, they happen to find a pair of jeans from a second-hand store that magically fits them all. They decide that they will each wear the pants for a week before shipping them on to the next friend, who must wear the pants, unwashed, for another week, and so on throughout the summer. Thus begins the trek of the magic, "traveling" pants, something that will keep them together and sustain them through whatever the summer may bring.

Director Ken Kwapis does a remarkable job of matching the book's breathless pacing, as we, and the pants, get shipped across oceans and continents: from Carmen, who is being forced, without explanation, to adjust to her father's new fiance and blond teenaged children; to Tibby, who finds herself saddled with a 12-year-old "assistant" with a tragic secret; to Bridget, who is turning on all her sexual charm to seduce a coach; and to Lena, who must overcome her shyness and her grandparent's prejudice to have her first boyfriend.

The summer holds life-altering changes for the girls, and it is Anna Brasheres's genius and its respectful handling by screenwriters Delia Ephron and Elizabeth Chandler that make these experiences heartbreakingly real.

It is at times, yes, a four hanky film, but its pathos is never forced and its situations never feel fabricated. The emotional repercussions of divorce, death, prejudice, and premature sexual encounters are the stuff and sorrows of contemporary life, and they are presented here in stark (but always PG) reality.

The veracity of the film is boosted wonderfully by the natural ability of its young leads. America Ferrera gives Carmen's silent and increasing disappointment and final phone confrontation with her father such emotive power that it makes you realize she is an actress of rare gift. Amber Tamblyn's transformation of Tibby from a bitter, sarcastic teen into the caring friend of a 12-year old girl is heartbreakingly real. Blake Lively's performance seems a little more two-dimensional than the others, but her portrayal of the impulsive Bridget looks so much like Brasheres's character that she literally jumps right out of the book and onto the screen, her soccer cleat-clad feet kicking and luminous hair swaying.

Alexis Bledel's portrayal of Lena seems the most superficial, and that is probably because the script didn't give her much to work with. For some odd reason, Ephron and Chandler substituted her pathological shyness for a Capulet/Montague-esque situation where she must defy (or sneak around) her grandparent's wishes in order to go out with local cutie, Kostos.

What's to overcome? She goes out with him anyway. Her story is pretty well void of drama, unlike Brasheres's Lena, who sweats bullets for15 minutes as she finally, finally forces her shyness aside and stutters out a confession of love. The film throws out this incredibly dramatic situation and replaces it with a fashion statement — her friends ooh and aah as Lena steps off the plane in (gasp) cool clothes.

The adventures of Carmen, Bridget, and Tibby are so poignant, however, that Lena just fades into the wall again as the film upholds the power of a friendship that transcends time, change, oceans, and can sometimes be nurtured by something as simple as, yes, a pair of pants.