In theaters

THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS, directed by Ken Kwapis, written by Delia Ephron and Elizabeth Chandler, 123 minutes, rated PG.

“The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” follows Ann Brashare’s best-selling book in that it’s not really about pants at all. They’re just a hook for something deeper.

The film is a coming-of-age story about four teenage girls going through their share of growing pains, with the pants in question, a worn pair of Levi jeans, serving as a catalyst that connects their adventures over the course of an eventful summer – the first these lifelong friends spend apart.

Initially, the jeans don’t appear to be anything special, which in the real world must mean they cost a fortune. But no. Found at a thrift store, the jeans aren’t only cheap but also have the benefit of fitting all of these girls perfectly in spite of their broad range of body types.

For instance, there’s tall, athletic Bridget (Blake Lifely), a soccer star in the making whose long limbs seem tailor-made for these jeans. There’s shy, waifish Lena (Alexis Bledel), who would prefer not to show off her body, thank you very much, in spite of the fact that these jeans reveal a good shape.

There’s Tibby (Amber Tamblyn), a sensitive Goth punk with streaked, electric blue hair whose dark mood might have turned these bluejeans black if she weren’t so pleased by how they fit. And then there’s Carmen (America Ferrera), the Rubenesque narrator of the story, on whom these jeans seem most unlikely. Still, there they are, riding low on her waist and complementing her bold curves regardless of the odds stacked against them.

Throughout the summer, the girls have promised to share the jeans, sending them to each other by FedEx so each can have their adventures in them. That isn’t as racy as it sounds. Instead, it’s just an innocent, sentimental way for the girls to share their summer. Think of it as walking in each other’s shoes.

Better yet, never mind about the jeans. What matters here is the travel, the experiences had while traveling, and the personal growth that comes as the girls take their first tentative steps into adulthood.

For Bridget, whose mother recently committed suicide, that means traveling to soccer camp in Mexico, where she aggressively seduces a soccer coach into having an affair with her. For Lena, summer means Greece, where she falls hard for the Greek boy (Michael Rady) her grandmother has warned her about. Back home in Maryland, Tibby strikes up an awkward relationship with ailing, 12-year-old Bailey (Jenna Boyd), while Carmen tries to reconnect in Charleston with her emotionally bankrupt father (Bradley Whitford), an insensitive jerk embracing his new life with his new WASP family.

It’s a big story, one filled with enough life lessons and tears to come apart at the seams, but the good news is that it doesn’t. As directed by Ken Kwapis from a script by Delia Ephron and Elizabeth Chandler, the film mines all of the ensuing potholes and pitfalls with a quick pace and without a trace of cynicism.

Earnest and well-acted, “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” slavishly serves its target audience of preteen girls, for sure, but unlike so many recent movies geared for that crowd, it at least sees its intended audience as real people with real problems and issues. Particularly good is Ferrera, but the other actresses also are memorable, as is this: That a movie about pants features a story that skirts formula is an irony worth savoring.

Grade: B

On video and DVD

SEED OF CHUCKY, written and directed by Don Mancini, 85 minutes, rated R.

At the start of “Seed of Chucky,” Don Mancini’s fifth film in the Chucky-the-crazed-slasher-doll series, the screen drips with what appears to be rivers of liquid latex. But not so fast. Soon, the truth of all that dripping reveals itself to be scores of white, angry-looking mini Chuckies. Replete with tails, they find their mark in an undulating tube. Cells split, a baby’s screech is heard, a child is born.

Hello, not-so-gorgeous.

Flash forward several years and what we have is spawn of Chucky, a sensitive, bug-eyed softie with razor-sharp teeth that toils in London as a ventriloquist’s dummy. When it learns that its doll parents, Chucky and Tiffany, are shooting a movie in the States called “Chucky Goes Psycho,” it flees London in an effort to find them.

Meanwhile, Academy Award-nominated actress Jennifer Tilly shows up to do what so many celebrities do when they have fallen out of favor with the public. She performs attention-getting camp. Here, she stars as a higher-strung version of herself – if that’s possible, which apparently it is – while also lending her voice to Tiffany, Chucky’s buxom, murdering doll-bride.

Good work if you can get it? I’m not convinced. It is Tilly, after all, who is eventually used by Chucky and Tiffany to be the host for their new child, which can be accomplished only with the help of restraints, a turkey baster and Chucky’s fevered imagination.

Amid the inevitable slaughterings, beheadings, stabbings and the like, the movie is never scary, though it does find jolts of humor in Tilly’s excess and in John Waters’ supporting role as a paparazzo. What makes the film less punchy than “Bride of Chucky” is that the franchise has become about a dysfunctional family of living dolls trying to make it in the world. Is this really where the franchise is going? If so, perhaps “Gone to Seed” would be a good title for the next film in the series.

Grade: C-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, and are archived at Rotten

Tomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

The Video-DVD Corner

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Alfie – C-

Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy – B+

Are We There Yet? – D

Assault on Precinct 13 – C+

The Aviator – A

Bad Education – A

Being Julia – B+

Beyond the Sea – C

Birth – B+

Blade: Trinity – D

Boogeyman – D

The Chorus – A-

Closer – B-

Collateral – B+

Cursed – C-

Darkness – D+

Elektra – C-

Ella Enchanted – B

Envy – D

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – A-

Exorcist: The Beginning – F

Finding Neverland – C

Flight Of The Phoenix – C-

House of Flying Daggers – A

The Incredibles – A

In Good Company – B+

King Arthur – B

Kinsey – A

Ladder 49 – B

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events – B-

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou – D+

Maria Full Of Grace – A

Meet the Fockers – C

Napoleon Dynamite – B+

National Treasure – C-

The Notebook – B+

Ocean’s Twelve – C-

The Phantom of the Opera – C

Ray – A

The Sea Inside – A-

Seed of Chucky – C-

Sideways – A

Taxi – D+

Team America: World Police – B-

William Shakespeare’s the Merchant of Venice – C+

The Woodsman – B+