Suburban jean therapy

Four 16-year-old friends from somewhere in suburbia buy a pair of magic jeans that fits all of them, despite the obvious differences in their sizes. They then go off separately for summer vacation, and things begin to happen. Not all of them are nice things, but the jeans, passed by post from one to the other, seem to help out.

An adaptation of Ann Brashare's best-selling novel, it unfolds through the stories of the fresh and confidently played four leads. The best involves the talented Amber Tamblyn's rebellious Tibby, who stays at home during the holiday, does shifts at the local supermarket and tries to make a documentary film about ordinary people but ends up learning more about life than she bargained for.

America Ferrera is also excellent as Carmen, who goes to stay with her father as he prepares to get remarried to a kindly but awful divorcée. Doing their best with less convincing material are Alexis Bledel, as the girl who goes to Greece and finds a handsome fisherman, and Blake Lively, as a football star who seduces her coach on a Mexican trip.

But for these four young performers who, particularly when acting together, seem a thoroughly credible posse of adolescents, The Sisterhood would fall flat: director Ken Kwapis glosses up the stories unnecessarily and the final reel is feel-good cliché all the way. All credit to the girls.

The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants
Cert: PG