"Sex and the City 2'

This movie-going mom thinks critics should stop whining about Sex and the City 2 and be thankful they got dessert for dinner.

Granted, the plot is like sand through the fingers, and the hottest thing about the movie is the desert of Abu Dhabi, where much of the action takes place. And that karaoke scene sung to "I Am Woman""“ well, that's a finger-wagging no-no. Director-writer Michael Patrick King should be sent to his room for wasting his God-given creativity on that one.

But women don't flock to SATC for meat and potatoes. (Heaven knows SATC's fabulous foursome wouldn't fit into their Size 0 designer sheaths if they ate meat and potatoes.) Rather, women stampede to SATC to find a glimmer of themselves in all the glitz and glam"“ a little reflection of their lives glinting off the gold and diamonds.

And just as the devoted SATC audience has matured from shiny youth to the texture of womanhood, marriage and mothering, the women of SATC haven't remained frozen in time with cocktails in one hand and condoms in the other— well, except for Samantha (the underappreciated Kim Cattrall) on the latter.

This sounds familiar

Critics largely have missed the mojo boost that comes from seeing four of modern America's sexiest women falling into the patterns of matrimony and parenthood. By now so many fans of the TV series have walked these steps in their own well-worn shoes.

Most of us will never attain those SATC wardrobes, jewelry boxes and New York élan, but that's part of SATC's charm. What's not to enjoy about seeing prim Charlotte (the perky Kristin Davis) slammed on the butt of her cream Valentino with her daughter's red handprints? Moms can relate"“ maybe not to wearing a Valentino while frosting cupcakes, but to a child's whims that whip up a whirlwind in the blink of an eye.

A key plot point in the film's rather pointless plot is that Carrie (the gleaming Sarah Jessica Parker) wonders if her two-year-old marriage to Big (the ever-wooden Chris Noth) has lost its "sparkle." Ordering in, watching old movies on a big-screen TV, and going to bed before dawn spell "yawn" to New York's glamour girl. Where's the drama and the sweep-me-off-my-feet?

Carrie's SATC pals set her tilting vessel aright: You can't beat the peace and comfort of coming home to the man who wants to be with you and only you, sharing your bed and sharing your life. The audience clucked its approval.

Small pleasures

But what about Charlotte's constantly crying baby with a severe case of the "mommies"? Come on, girls, we've all been there. That's what Charlotte finally learns in Abu Dhabi. It took her 6,500 miles and sketchy cell phone reception to distance herself from the chaos of motherhood.

Charlotte's "perfect-mom" exterior finally cracks in a heart-to-heart with the veteran mom Miranda (the winning Cynthia Nixon) over large and lovely cocktails in their dreamy "Arabian Nights" hotel suite. The scene shone brightly because it reminded us of SATC's greatest TV achievement: Charting the lives of the dearest of friends in the smallest of moments.

Searching for a message

Unfortunately, these moments, encased in try-too-hard-for-Hollywood scenes, haven't translated well to the big screen. That big screen has critics hankering to find a message in a movie about women who allot a significant percentage of their lives and income to shopping. Well, that's not going to happen.

Let the critics cast a dark eye at SATC2 for contrasting New York flash with Middle Eastern modesty and look down long noses at the high camp of women slipping off their burquas to reveal Versace underneath. For the two-and-a-half hours I sat between my BFFs in the relative blissful solitude of a movie theater, where no one was calling for Mommy or fighting over the comfy side of the couch, I got satisfaction. And that's what I came for: An escape with sparkle.