Please don't let this horribly cheesy title keep you away from this cinematic treasure! Writing this review two days after see the movie, and I'm still crying. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is the kind of title that evokes Disney Channel movies staring Mickey Mouse Club members (or worse, Hillary Duff),but I swear to you that this movie is so much more. I was in tears from beginning to end as I saw my own insecurities and fears addressed in each one of these characters.

First, there\'s CARMEN (America Ferrera),the writer, the Puerto Rican, the "curvey" one (I HATE that word),and the one who spends the summer with her father and his new family. Carmen's weight issues and "absentee father" issues hit home to me. In fact, the first tears I shed in this movie came at the moment that Carmen drives up to her father's house and learns that he is getting remarried... to a women he lives with... whom Carmen had never met, nor even heard of before. I learned only a few months ago, over the phone no less, that my father was remarried, and it's still not something he's talked to me about. Carmen uses the magical "traveling pants" to get the courage to finally tell her father how sad she is and how much he's hurt her, and this was the point in the movie that had me BALLING.

Lena (Alexis Bledel) is the soft-spoken and shy beauty who spends the summer with her grandparents in Greece. I definitely relate to Lena in her… what's the word… modesty. She doesn't wear revealing clothes, she's not open to new love, and she has an overall fear of intimacy. With the help of \"the pants\", she meets a beautiful Greek man named Kostas (Michael Rady) and learns to let love it.

Bridget (Blake Lively) is the tall, blond, and extremely confidant soccer star who spends the summer in Baja California, Mexico, at a soccer camp, where she spends most of her time trying to seduce her soccer coach Eric (Mike Vogel). She's also still grieving the loss of her mother who killed herself. For most of the film, I felt no connection to Bridget at all (tall, blond, and athletic, I am not). But it eventually hit me. Bridget's persistent pursuit of Eric and her determination to excel at soccer are her means of hiding from her pain. Her main motivation in life is to numb the pain of her mother's death. Who can't relate to that? Tibby's (Amber Tamblyn) storyline is the most surprising. I didn't expect to be so moved. Tibby is stuck at home for the summer, working at a Walgreens-like drugstore, filming a documentary (or as she calls it, a "suckumentary"),and generally hating life and humanity while her friends travel around the world. The traveling pants are accidentally sent to the wrong address, and a little girl named Bailey (Jenna Boyd) finds them and returns them to Tibby. Bailey is intrigued by Tibby's "suckumentary" and volunteers to help with the film. Though she annoys Tibby at first, Bailey turns out to be extremely soulful and has a real gift for discovering each person's humanity and connecting to anyone. This little girl single-handedly steals the movie, and Jenna Boyd is gifted beyond her years.

This is NOT a chick flick, this isn't a teeny-pop film, and there's NO Hillary Duff or Lindsay Lohan anywhere in sight. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is about the fears and insecurities that all young people feel as they enter adulthood, boys and girls. We all have to deal with our bodies, with our parents, with love, and with death, and this film deals with all of these issues with honesty, sensitivity, and maturity. And most importantly, this movie reinstates the fact that none of us has to deal with these issues alone.

Tibby (Amber Tamblyn),Lena (Alexis Bledel),Carmen (America Ferrera),and Bridget (Blake Lively) are lifelong friends from birth. They find a second-hand pair of jeans that magically fit them all. They are separating for the summer but vows to stay connected by sharing the magic pants. Lena has a Greek holiday with her Greek relatives. Bridget misses her dead mom and is away at soccer camp. Carmen is meeting up with her dad (Bradley Whitford) but he surprises her with a wedding to girlfriend (Nancy Travis). Tibby is stuck working the summer and finds Bailey (Jenna Boyd) passed out in the aisle.

The biggest fundamental problem for this movie is that the girls spend most of the movie apart. The point of these types of movies is for the group to develop chemistry together. This one assumes the chemistry and split the girls up. There is a reason why the best story is Tibby and Bailey. They are actually allowed to build up a relationship. Lena's story probably the weakest. It's way too light like a frivolous Greek holiday movie. The biggest asset in the movie are the four girls plus Jenna Boyd. They are all charming. They are all compelling actresses. Each one has something to contribute to the movie. The best scenes occur when the girls have a heart felt one on one. All in all, this is a sweet melodrama.

Tibby Tomko-Rollins (Amber Tamblyn),Lena Kaligaris (Alexis Bledel),Carmen Lowell (America Ferrera) and Bridget Vreeland (Blake Lively) are best friends since they were children. In the beginning of their summer vacations, they find a pair of jeans that fits each one of them perfectly; they decide to share the pants as a magic symbol of their friendship and form a sisterhood with a manifesto of ten rules. Bridget travels to a soccer camp in Mexico and she has a crush on the coach Eric (Mike Vogel),who is older than she. Lena visits her family in Greece and has a crush on the local fisherman Kostas (Michael Rady) and finds that there is a feud between their families. Carmen travels to South Caroline to spend the vacation with her father and she finds that he will marry the divorced Lydia Rodman (Nancy Travis). Tibby stays in town working in a department store to raise money to buy new equipment for her documentary and is befriended by the twelve year old Bailey (Jenna Boyd) that is very ill. After their vacations, they grow-up and their friendship remains solid as never.

"The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" is a sweet tale of friendship, love and loss of four girlfriends. I saw the good sequel in a flight two days ago, and both movies are great. The chemistry among Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera and Blake Lively is amazing and they really seem to be close friends. The movie is delightful, the performances of the actresses are fantastic, but I particularly liked the dramatic and never corny relationship between Tibby and Bailey. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Quatro Amigas e um Jeans Viajante" ("Four Friends and a Traveling Jeans")