The movie manages to come out emotionally realistic, even brutal. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Samantha (Kim Cattrall), now in their 40s and 50s, continue to navigate the choppy waters of urban life, negotiating relationships, work, fertility and friendship, only now the stakes are higher, the risks are bigger and decisions feel more permanent.

That's why it feels strange to say that what feels most remarkable about the movie is its embrace of middle-aged women. (At one point in the movie, the friends get together to celebrate－shocker!－Samantha's 50th birthday.) But there you have it: Hollywood, 2008. It's so rare to see women over 30 playing characters other than tough-nut detectives or bovine moms, that the fact that Carrie et al. are allowed to be funny, independent, complicated, sexual, cynical and happy still comes across as a delightful surprise.

In the end, underneath it all, real life was being reflected, a vision of which doesn't require its characters being frozen in amber after a fairy tale ending and allows life to go on, happily and unconventionally.