2005: America Ferrera in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants"
Wednesday, August 19, 2020 at 5:00PM by Nick Taylor
We all know the story of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Four 16-year-old Maryland girls who’ve been friends since birth - Lena Kaligaris (Alexis Bledel), Bridget Vreeland (Blake Lively), Carmen Lowell (America Ferrera), and Tabitha “Tibby” Rollins (Amber Tamblyn) - are about to spend their first ever summer apart. The day before they set out on their separate journeys, they find a pair of jeans that somehow (magically?) fits each of them perfectly. They vow to share the pants the whole summer, each wearing them for a week before mailing them off to the next sister. What surprised me is that the movie did not structure itself around said paints but spent time with all four girls regardless of who had them. To paraphrase one of Carmen’s last lines, the pants aren’t so much a character in Sisterhood but a witness to some of its events. Maybe you think it’s a little iffy to categorize them as supporting, maybe you think the structure giving each one their own plot and weaving them all together at the end allows for it. What’s not up for debate, at least for me, is that America Ferrera’s performance as Carmen is the undeniable highlight of the whole film.
There are a few reasons outside of Ferrera’s performance why I think Carmen’s section of Sisterhood is the strongest...