While Jennifer Hudson's Louise is an entirely new addition to the female cast, her friendship with Carrie is one of the movie's more powerful pieces. At the same time that she helps protect Carrie from painful aspects of her life, she keeps difficult but valuable truths on standby for whenever Carrie is ready. And by being honest about her own dreams as well as disappointments, her life becomes a reason for Carrie to believe that there really can be hope after pain.

Both dealing with fairly major wounds inflicted upon them by the men in their life, Carrie and Miranda are at first simply there for each other. But, as the story evolves, it is through their friendship that they are reminded that even the best of relationships will never be perfect. Even though neither of them has been willing to forgive the men in their lives, when a rift comes between the two of them, perspectives shift. They both seem to acknowledge that real love is not meant to end in one fell swoop, and they recognize that maybe forgiveness is truly a part of what it means to love.

Whether you believe that any of the movie's couples are actually meant to end up where they do or not, the message at the movie's end is that love overcomes. Love is what helps us get through hard times. And if we do love someone, love not only compels us to forgive one another, but to believe that it will be enough to get through anything and everything that may lie ahead. Toward the beginning of the movie, Carrie tells Big that all her life she's been writing about trying to find love, but now she wants to write about what happens when you've found it. And in many ways, that is what the movie is about. What is love? Really?

As the ladies showed us in the series, when searching for love, there are no perfect people, only imperfect people who might just be our perfect match. As the movie shows, when it comes to finding that love, a similar truth also applies. With love, there may be happiness and excitement and meaning, but it will not guarantee a fairytale happily-ever-after. Our lives and relationships will still face rough times, mistakes, and shortcomings. Our expressions of love, like us, will never be perfect. But in a world where there is one who's love is perfect—the one who gave us life, who sacrificed His own that we might live, and who is always there to protect us, defend us, comfort us, forgive us, and give us whatever push we need to get where we are going—we can find hope in knowing that the power of love is real. We can take joy in the ability we have been given to share that love with others. And we can know that if there is anything that can help us get through this crazy thing called life, love is it

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