Sex and the City
Set four years after the events of the series finale, the film begins with a montage of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) walking through New York and a recap of what happened in the TV series as well as what happened between the season six finale and the film. It then jumps to Carrie and Big (Chris Noth) viewing apartments with the intention of moving in together. Carrie falls in love with a penthouse suite far from their price range, which Big immediately agrees to pay for. However, Carrie experiences doubts over the wisdom of this arrangement, explaining that they are not married, and as such she would have no legal rights to their home in the event of a separation. She offers to sell her own apartment, and quelling her fears, Big suggests that they get married.
Samantha (Kim Cattrall) has relocated her business to Los Angeles to be close to Smith (Jason Lewis), who is now a prime-time television star. She finds her five-year-old relationship humdrum and yearns for her old life—especially after witnessing the public sexcapades of Dante, the hot new neighbor. She takes every opportunity to fly East to be with the other girls.
Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) finds that balancing her home, work, and social life ever the more difficult, and confesses to the girls that she hasn’t had sex with Steve (David Eigenberg) in six months. She is devastated when Steve reveals he has slept with another woman, and immediately separates from him.
After an argument with Steve at the rehearsal dinner, Miranda, still upset about Steve's indiscretion, tells Big bluntly that he and Carrie are crazy to be getting married, as marriage ruins everything. On the day of the ceremony, Big cannot go through with it, but repeated attempts to telephone Carrie fail. A devastated Carrie flees the wedding. Big changes his mind and intercepts Carrie as he sees her limousine drive away. Carrie, humiliated and betrayed, furiously attacks Big with her bouquet while he earns scathing looks from Miranda and Charlotte. The four women subsequently take the honeymoon that Carrie had booked to Mexico, where they de-stress and collect themselves.
Upon her return to New York, Carrie hires an assistant, Louise (Jennifer Hudson), to help her move back into her old apartment and manage her administration. Charlotte learns she is pregnant after a visit to her doctor. Miranda eventually confesses to Carrie about what happened during the night of the rehearsal dinner, and the two have a brief falling out. After reflecting on the argument she had with Carrie, Miranda agrees to attend couples counseling with Steve, and they are eventually able to reconcile. Samantha begins over-eating to keep from cheating on Smith with Dante, but eventually realizes that their relationship is simply not working, and that she needs to put herself first. The two break up, and she moves back to New York. Charlotte for several months is concerned that something might happen to the baby, because she feels her life seems to be too perfect.
A surprise encounter with Big at a restaurant leaves Charlotte so outraged that she goes into labor. Big drives her to the hospital, and waits until baby Rose is born, hoping to see Carrie. Harry passes on the message that Big would like her to call him, and that he has written to her frequently, but never received a reply. Carrie searches her correspondence, before realizing that Louise has kept his e-mails password-protected from her, after Carrie earlier announced she wished to sever all communication with him. She finds that he has sent her dozens of letters copied from the book she showed him in the weeks before their wedding, Love Letters of Great Men, Vol. 1, culminating with one of his own where he apologizes for screwing it up and promises to love her forever.
One hour before the locks are due to be changed on their shared penthouse apartment, Carrie travels to the home Big had bought for them to collect a pair of blue Manolo Blahnik shoes she had left there. She finds Big in the walk-in closet he had built for her, and the moment she sees him, her anger at his betrayal dissipates. She runs into his arms and they share a passionate kiss. After they have spent the final hour in their apartment together making up, talking and apologizing to one another, Big proposes to Carrie properly, using one of her diamond-encrusted shoes in place of a ring. They later marry alone, in a simple wedding in New York City Hall, with Carrie dressed in the original dress she had bought in a vintage shop and the blue Manolos. After Big kisses the bride, he whispers into her ear "Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours," a line by Ludwig van Beethoven Carrie read to him from Love Letters of Great Men, Vol. 1 earlier in the film. They hold a get-together at a local diner with their friends. The film ends with the four women around a table in a restaurant, sipping cosmopolitans, and celebrating Samantha's fiftieth birthday, with Carrie making a toast to the next fifty.
Sex and the City 2
Set two years after the first film, the film begins with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) meeting up with each other at a shop in New York which turns into a flashback to how Carrie arrived in New York City in 1986, then met Charlotte in 1987, Miranda in 1988 and finally Samantha in 1989.
The film then jumps to the present, two years after the events of the first film. At the Connecticut same-sex wedding of Stanford Blatch (Willie Garson) and Anthony Marentino (Mario Cantone), Liza Minnelli appears to officiate the wedding vows and sings Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)".
The four friends now have lives that are more stressful than before: All are married except Samantha, who is now 52 and trying to keep her libido alive with hormones while dealing with menopause. Miranda quits her job after the new managing partner disrespects her once too often. Charlotte's two children are a handful and she's worried that Harry is attracted to their buxom Irish nanny, Erin (Alice Eve).
Carrie's marriage to Mr. Big (Chris Noth) has settled down, though they differ on how to spend their spare time: she loves to go out, he would prefer to stay home every night, eating take-out meals and watching television. For their anniversary, Carrie gives Mr. Big a vintage Rolex watch engraved with a romantic message, while he, much to her dismay, shows her a new television in their bedroom as his gift, which Big says they can use to watch old movies together as they did on vacation. Carrie is disappointed, as she had hoped for jewelry as a gift. She asks to spend some personal time alone in her old apartment, but Big enjoys the time to himself even more than she does, and to Carrie's dismay, asks to make it a weekly occurrence.
Meanwhile, Samantha has been approached by an Arab sheikh to devise a PR campaign for his business. He offers to fly her and her friends on an all-expenses-paid luxury vacation to Abu Dhabi. The girls happily accept, although Carrie is worried about the separation from Big and Charlotte is worried about leaving her husband alone with the nanny. Only Miranda, unfettered by a job for the first time in her life, plunges enthusiastically into studying Arabic and planning sightseeing.
Upon entering Abu Dhabi, Samantha's hormone-enhancing drugs are confiscated under UAE law. This renders her devoid of estrogen; to her great dismay, her famous libido goes dead, unaroused even by Australian men in Speedo swimwear. Charlotte tries to call Harry every few minutes. Miranda revels in the luxury surrounding her, while Carrie befriends her manservant, Gaurau (Raza Jaffrey), and learns of his long distance marriage - he can only afford to see his wife back in India once every three months.
While out shopping at the local souk with Miranda, Carrie runs into her former lover, Aidan (John Corbett). He proposes dinner à deux at his hotel, but she is noncommittal. The next day, however, she is crushed at reading a negative critique of her new book in The New Yorker, and decides to meet Aidan for dinner, although Charlotte cautions her not to play with fire. The dinner is very enjoyable, with the two discussing old times. Aidan remarks on the ways Carrie is "not like other women", pointing out that when they were engaged, she would only wear her engagement ring on a chain around her neck; now that she's married, she still isn't wearing a diamond on her ring finger, only her wedding ring. In a moment of remembered passion, they kiss. Carrie runs away in a panic and returns to the hotel.
Meanwhile, back at the hotel, Miranda and Charlotte have drinks together and discuss the difficulties of motherhood. Miranda admits painfully that being a mother is not enough for her and that she misses her job. Charlotte confesses her guilt at enjoying her time away from her daughters and her frustration with trying to be the perfect mother at all times. She drinks so many cocktails to bolster her courage to be honest with Miranda that she becomes very tipsy.
At this point, Carrie bursts into the room, crying, "I played with fire!". After summoning Samantha, she tells her friends about the kiss, and asks them whether or not she should tell Big, as she says they have no secrets between them. Miranda reflects on the events of the previous film, when her husband, Steve (David Eigenberg), told her about his affair and how in retrospect, while it helped clear his conscience, she is not sure that knowing was worth the pain she went through. Charlotte is too drunk to be any help, but Carrie already knows where she stands. Samantha counsels Carrie to wait and sleep on it before deciding anything.
Carrie opts to call Big from Abu Dhabi to tell him. Previously, in the television series, Carrie had had an affair with Big, who was then married to Natasha, while dating Aidan, which subsequently caused both couples to break up. Big is silent upon hearing the news, and after saying a few words, hangs up.
The four women find their style and Western attitudes contrast with Muslim customs, with Samantha facing the most conflict. While on a date with Rikard (Max Ryan), a handsome Dane, Samantha is arrested for public indecency after fondling him at a restaurant and making out with him on the beach (she claims they were just kissing). With the Sheikh's intervention, Samantha is released, but is left with a permanent police record. Worse, due to her display of disrespect for local custom, the Sheikh cancels the PR meeting and ceases paying for the women's luxurious perks.
They quickly pack their bags and leave, but must return to the souk to find Carrie's passport, where Charlotte is nearly detained by some overenthusiastic traders in illegal watches. When Samantha's flamboyance nearly incites a riot, the girls are rescued by a group of Muslim women who share their sense of style under their black robes.
When Carrie returns home, she finds the bedroom television removed and Big gone. She passes an anxious day, at the end of which he returns. Big tells her that although he was "pretty torn up", he realizes that she is "a rookie at this marriage thing", and that what she needs is something to remind her at all times that she is married. He hands her a jewelry box which reveals an engagement-style ring set with a black diamond. When Carrie asks him why a black diamond, he says, "Because you're not like anyone else", echoing Aidan's earlier comment.
The movie ends with a few scenes showing the problems the women faced at the beginning of the film being resolved. Big and Carrie combine their interests. Charlotte's nanny, Erin, turns out to be a lesbian and is no threat to her marriage. Miranda finds a new job where she is appreciated, and Samantha stays the same. In the final scene, Big and Carrie are watching an old black-and-white movie (The Talk of the Town) where 'The End' appears on the TV screen.
