A characteristic of living in a world in which capitalism has run rampant is an inevitable superficiality to our hopes and desires. While a few people aspire to living a life which nourishes the soul, plenty more are happy to focus on the material aspects of the modern world, defining themselves through the possessions they own rather than the things that they do. If any movie can be said to peddle this materialistic worldview wholesale it's the second installment of the big screen adaptation of the popular HBO series Sex And The City. Here, vanity and the acquisition of expensive things is the main - if not the only - reason to live; a movie where expensive shoes can take on iconic status. With a bit of luck, in a few years' time this obsession with material possessions will become a thing of the past, as more and more people come to realise that happiness comes from leading a productive life, not accumulating pointless objects. By then, movies starring, in the words of one critic, "semi-animated clothes hangers" should be a thing of the past.
