by Holly Huffstutler

Created on: April 29, 2009   Last Updated: April 30, 2009

The point of "Sex and the City: The Movie" can be summed up by this quote between Big (sorry, not used to calling Mr. Big John yet) and Carrie: "I used to write about love now I want to write about what happens after you find it" "Interesting, so what happens?" "Stay tuned" But really the point of the movie could be summed up in this exchange between the two lovers: "So we're getting married, should I get you a diamond?" "No, just get me a really big closet"

Meaning of course that "Sex and the City" the series was at least 50 percent about the fashion so why shouldn't the movie also shamelessly flaunt the Manolo Blahniks or spend half the screen time in style montages. Like that Vogue wedding dress shoot that tantalizes with the gorgeous lacy Oscar de la Renta and the spectacular Vivianne Westwood that practically becomes a character in the film.

But honestly, the movie is not just a Dior cream puff. Or if it is, it only stays that way for the first half hour. Then it shifts focus to become a perfect representation of all the emotion that kept the series meaningful and watchable for five seasons. The acting from the four ladies and their male counterparts is superb evidence of the fact that they have all lived in these characters for many many years now.

The setup of the film is that five years have passed since the series ended, and certain things about Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte's lives have changed while they and their unshakable friendship have not.

The movie establishes that all four are in happily committed relationships with the same men they were hooked up with in the series finale and Big and Carrie are have now moved on to the next chapter in their tumultuous love story: happiness andmarriage? They buy a perfect Manhattan pent house apartment and Big proposes. Of course from there on, drama ensues.

The other three women have drama of their own. The "reproductively challenged" Charlotte (Kristin Stewart) and her bald and perfect husband Harry (Evan Handler) have adopted a little girl from China before Charlotte receives some surprising reproductive news. The commitment phobic Samantha (Kim Catrall) begins to feel stifled in her relationship with the gorgeous and devoted Smith (Jason Lewis) and, since they live in California, she finds the countrywide separation from the other loves of her life unbearable.

Next to the ongoing Big and Carrie emotional roller-coaster the biggest conflict is the marital troubles of Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Steve (David Eigeberg) which accidentally feed Carrie and Big's conflict.

Michael Patrick King, who wrote, directed and produced the movie as well as the series, strikes a great balance between the mainstays that TV audiences loved and new elements that are so expertly crafted that the movie audience can't not love them too.

Like the flawless soundtrack that pumps energy into the film from the first moment when the familiar piano and xylophone theme is remixed into an aggressive designer name dropping Fergie single.

Jennifer Hudson is added to the ensemble cast as Louise, who Carrie hired as a personal assistant in her time of chaotic trouble. Louise functions as a mirror of Carrie's youth, a 20 something girl who came "to New York in search of two things: labels and love."

These two added elements: music and singer-turned-actress fuse in the final moments of the film, when her song plays as the four women end their journey the way they began it, sitting around a table, drinking cosmos, and as Carrie says, "dressed head to toe in love."

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