Real Women Have Curves

Rating:
Summary: Quick peek into real life, but only a glance before you go.
Review: This is a very real-life story about a girl who is weighing her life choices after she graduates from high school. Her family needs her to work at her sister's boutique, but she wants to go to college. While she's making up her mind, she has a brief but sweet relationship, and a lot of growing up to do. The movie presents us with a semi-spoiled late-teens girl, and fleshes out her becoming more of a woman in a small amount of time.

Most of the praise I have for this film is given over due to the realistic nature of the movie... the true setting, environment and tone of Los Angeles and the way life can be there. It's a fun story if a little choppy. What kept me from giving this film a higher rating: 1. The ending. See it, and you'll know what I mean when I say: "I hate it when movies do this." 2. We don't really get much more than snapshot moments with the characters, and thus are left kind of thirsty for more. 3. See number one.

All in all, cute and semi-sweet, but not enough depth to pluck the heartstrings for more than a couple of chords. It has zero replay value in my opinion, so rent, if at all interested.

Rating:
Summary: Keeping It Real
Review: Think of this movie as a 'Bend it like Beckham' with a mix of esteem and body image issues thrown in. Only it is not as entertaining...or as well acted. I found the lead performance to be quite unsure, often undermining the 'inner strength' we're led to believe this character has. I was at a loss trying to determine why she did some of the things she did. Ultimately, I guess that's what made it seem so real. People don't often have well thought-out motives for all their actions, and often are very inconsistent. Mothers don't always 'come around in the end'. This movie doesn't try to as well.

Rating:
Summary: I have curves WOO!
Review: This movie is good because it has a positive message that would make plus-sized women (like myself) have more confidence and self-esteem, but it wasn't that great. There were way too many cheesy and unrealistic moments. I wouldn't say this movie was wonderful, but it wasn't bad.

Rating:
Summary: Real Women Have Curves
Review: Real Women Have Curves is a critically acclaimed film directed by Patricia Cardoso and starring America Ferrera, Lupe Ontiveros and Ingrid Oliu. This movie deals with a mother-daughter relationship between Carmen (Lupe Ontiveros) and Ana (America Ferrera). Ana is a first generation Mexican American who longs to continue her education at Columbia University where she is accepted with a full scholarship, however her mother would prefer that she remain at home and help out the family like she did when she was younger. She wants Ana to be a reflection of herself. Ana decides to help her family out by working in her sister's clothing factory where she works with her mother, sister as well as a few other Hispanic women. All three women break the stereotypes of many Hispanic people by being seen as hard working individuals who care a great deal about their family.
Moreover, although Ana comes from a humble home in a highly populated Hispanic neighborhood she still strives for a good education and the fact that she is a woman, nonetheless Hispanic and comes from a lower class family does not stop her, which I really like. It sends young Hispanic women the message that although they are struggling economically or because of racial inequality that they should fight to have a success story like Ana. Estella owns the factory and works hard to keep it. She does not need the help of a husband to survive. Her family most importantly her mother and sister are who assist her in order to keep her store open and her dream alive. This film undoubtedly breaks many stereotypes of Hispanics in America.
Ana who is the main character in this film is not the typical beautiful young girl because of her weight, which is constantly reminded to her by her mother. She also downplays her natural beauty, until a young man suddenly likes her from her high school. Unlike most males, he sees beyond the physical beauty, by not seeing her as a commodity, but as a person. He falls for her, not her body. This movie also shows that although women are often taught from a young age that their physical beauty is imperative and that they need to fit the standards of an ideal women to be liked by a man it is not true. This movie displays that inner beauty is and should be seen as what makes a woman valuable. In the end it is not a woman's beauty that should determine her social standing but her brains. Ana was intelligent and hardworking that is why she made it into Columbia and why she had the young boy interested in her. Real Women Have Curves leaves viewers, more specifically women viewers, with positive thoughts on how women should actually want to be seen, which is for the internal not the external. It also teaches women that if you can learn to love and value yourself from the inside out then the physical is not so important. Not to mention that if you really want to accomplish something you can, no matter what the obstacles, social, economic, race or gender. This movie is a must see film.