Real Women Have Curves

REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES (2002) ***1/2 America Ferrera, Lupe Ontiveros, Ingrid Oliu, George Lopez, Brian Sites, Soledad St. Hilaire, Dale E. Turner. Above average indie diamond in the rough slice of life portrayal of a Mexican American teenager (Ferrara in a remarkable acting debut) trying to cope with her dream to attend college and her quarrelsome relationship with her loving but problematic mother (Ontiveros who gives a beautifully modulated turn) whose own insecurities and frustrations are taken out on her zaftig daughter. Funny, poignant and ultimately a triumph in full-bodied (no pun intended) protagonists without compromising it's clear headed vision of how society and culture myopically decides what is pleasant to the eye (or acceptable for that matter). Finally a film that portrays Latinos in a positive light by not making it a ‘racial film' either. The screenplay by George LaVoo and Josefina Lopez (adapting her play) offers insight to familiar subject matter but with a refreshing focus on character development by not compromising it's strong message: to accept one self is to love one self. (Dir: Patricia Cardoso)

The movie Real Women Have Curves is a 2002 comedy directed by Patricia Cardoso. Ana (America Ferrera) is a young and smart girl from a Mexican immigrant family, who graduates from the famous Beverly High School of California, and gets accepted in Columbia University with a full scholarship. Controlled by her mother Mrs. Carmen (Lupe Ontiveros), who strongly believes that a girl's fate is to learn to work hard and learn to take care of her future husband. Raul Garcia (Jorge Cervera Jr.) Ana's father and Mr. Guzman (George Lopez) Ana's English teacher play wonderful mediators and defend Ana to go to college.

This is a movie for everyone to see. Children can confront parents in laughter, while enjoying this together. It reveals the constant battle between mother and daughter, but most of all; it shows how challenging it is for smart children from uneducated families to pursue a higher education.

Although the comedian George Lopez, from the George Lopez show, is not an actor, he gives a high performance in this movie playing the role of the teacher who tries by all means to see one of his smartest students succeeding in what she deserves, despite the character hostile of Lupe Ontiveros, who sees her daughter going against the value of their traditions.

This movie makes me think of the Cider House Rules, in which Dr. Larch (Michael Caine) always reminds Homer Well (Toby McGuire), his traditions and what he comes to accomplish in life. Like America Ferrera, it is hard for Toby McGuire to break the rules, and leave the orphanage to discover what is out there for him.

Patricia Cardoso increases the suspense in this movie with the motif "red color," which appears every time America Ferrera's future is being discussed. She makes this screenplay so funny and devoid of bad scenes or language. This is what Robert Ebert from the Chicago Tribune calls "enormously entertaining for moviegoers of any age."

`Real Women Have Curves' feels a bit like a modern ethnic version of `Georgy Girl,' featuring a free-spirited young woman named Ana who doesn't quite fit the mold of what society believes a woman should look like.

Ana is a somewhat `overweight' high school senior living in East LA who has dreams of being the first person in her family to go to college. Her parents, however, have other plans for her life, which basically involve marriage, motherhood and a job working in her older sister's dress factory. Ana faces the struggle common to many young people who happen to be first-generation Americans: should she conform to the old-fashioned customs and traditions of her family or should she set out to make it on her own with all the advantages and opportunities available to people in this society? `Real Women Have Curves' avoids becoming a culture clash cliché through its keen observation of the minutiae of everyday life. Unlike most films, `Real Women' actually explores the day-to-day struggles of the working class in this country. The people in this film worry about whether or not they will be able to make a go of their businesses, whether or not their bills will get paid, whether or not a promising young student will be allowed to go to college and make something of herself or just end up as a cog in the system that absorbs so many of the underclass. It's these slice-of-life details that make the film interesting.

Ana's main foil is her own mother, who believes not only that her daughter is overweight and, thereby, ruining her chances to make an acceptable marriage, but that she must forego college in order to help with the family business. The majority of the conflict in the film occurs between these two women, both equally hardheaded, moody and determined to get what they want. America Ferrara as Ana, Lupe Ontiveras as her mother and Ingrid Oliu as Estela, her hardworking, levelheaded sister, create characters who are believable, subtle and instantly recognizable. Writers Josefina Lopez and George LaVoo have a sharp ear for the way people actually speak. Director Patricia Cardoso doesn't try to impress us with fancy camera angles or clever cutting. Instead, she lets the story develop naturally, allowing us to eavesdrop on a milieu that may seem strange to some of us. Cardoso knows full well that the universal nature of what she is showing us will draw us into the story and these characters' lives. It's nice, too, to see a film in which the young people are spending their time trying to get into good colleges instead of indulging in all the high school hijinks and hoopla we usually see in more mainstream movies these days.

True, the movie does sacrifice some of its verisimilitude by trying a bit too hard to be a `feel good' experience. One occasionally senses a certain straining for the upbeat moral message, as when Ana convinces her coworkers to strip down to their undies in the factory as a statement about how women should not be ashamed of their bodies just because they aren't a size six. But the film more than makes up for that in the unconventional way in which it treats Ana's departure from her mother at the end.

`Real Women Have Curves' is a small movie but a universal one.

I was showed this movie in my 11th grade class and I never thought that a movie like this would really be funny and dramatic. I really didn't think that this movie was going to be any good but I was wrong. I did what a lot of people do now a days, judged a book or movie by it's cover. But the message of this movie is to feel easy going about that very cover. Real Women Have Curve is a film that is about Mexican Americans and also the a view of how society standardize "sexy". Ana being a little overweight finds herself on an quest to find the sexy women in her and change the views of not only herself but the views of others as well.

Real Women Have Curves is a very enjoyable film, and also a very real film. It deals with very real issues concerning women and especially young women. The main character is of the Hispanic persuasion and though she is a very bright girl and could possibly get into a good collage she runs the risk of being swallowed up in the death trap job of making dresses that cost them 18 dollars to make but get sold in department stores for 800 dollars. Her mother keeps telling her she's overweight overlooking the fact that she is heavier than her daughter. This film is very much set in the real world, and the problems facing the characters are problems we all face at one time or another like "can I pay the rent on time?" or "will this person like me for who I am instead of what I look like?" Within the context of the film the answers to those questions are yes, and yes which may be one of the reasons this film is so enjoyable. America Ferrera's performance is reminiscent of the kind of girl you would see at your local high school, and the message of this movie is one that more people should take to heart. Be who you are, not who others want you to be, follow your dreams, and the like. I was surprised with how frankly this film deals with teenage sexuality, and how it challenges the concept of what beauty is in modern culture makes it a very progressive film indeed.