The girls reunite after their first year of college. Tibby Rollins (Amber Tamblyn) is studying filmmaking at NYU and has to go back for summer school. She's with Brian and they have a scare. Bridget Vreeland (Blake Lively) is playing soccer at Brown and she finds letters from her estranged grandmother Greta (Blythe Danner). She goes to a dig in Turkey for the summer. Lena Kaligaris (Alexis Bledel) is on scholarship at Rhode Island School of Design. Lena is surprised to find Kostas married with a child on the way. She falls for Leo (Jesse Williams) and then Kostas come back into her life. Carmen Lowell (America Ferrera) hates that everybody seems to be moving on including her mother. She's working backstage while at Yale. Actress Julia Beckwith (Rachel Nichols) invites her to Vermont to an acting retreat as backstage crew. She declines at first until the other girls tell her about their other plans. The workshop play is directed by Bill Kerr (Kyle MacLachlan). Leading actor Ian takes an interest and Carmen is cast as the lead. In a fit of spite, Lena's sister Effie (Lucy Hale) takes the pants but loses them in Greece.
This movie has the same charms and the same problems as the first movie. The goodness in this series are the girls and their friendships. Their trials and tribulations are soapy but compelling although the movie may be too overstuffed with soap opera. The actresses are all terrific. Once again, the problem is that the girls are separated for most of the movie. Their group chemistry is diffused. Of course, the whole point of the series is that the pants connect them as they go off on their own. It's impossible to keep them together for long without losing the whole premise. In the end, this is a nice coming-of-age franchise for girls.
