Real
Women Have Curves
review by Cynthia Fuchs, 8 November 2002
Expectations
Ana (América Ferrera) is graduating from Beverly
Hills High School. But, unlike her privileged classmates, she can't
count on going to college. For the past four years, Ana has been
riding the city bus from her home in East Los Angeles to school,
where her teachers extol her intelligence, talent, and promise. When
she gets home each day, however, she lives another life.
That life, in
Real Women Have Curves, is centered on Ana's family, in
particular, her mother Carmen (Lupe Ontiveros). The youngest child,
Ana represents all sorts of ideals for Carmen, and some fears as
well, for instance, that her own life will remain unchanged, that
her hard work has led her to disappointment, that her youth and
dreams are past. And so, as Ana is preparing to leave home, even
considering the possibility, Carmen reminds her that her first
obligation is to her family, not herself. The decision is made: Ana
will work fulltime in the sweatshop owned by her sister Estela
(Ingrid Oliu).
Much as she has
been expecting it, Ana can't help but resent this turn of events.
After all, her favorite teacher, Mr. Guzman (George Lopez), has been
encouraging her to pursue her studies, indeed, to apply to Columbia,
where he has connections (thus enabling her to send in a late
application). He goes so far as to come by Ana's house,
unfortunately during her family-only graduation party, to urge
Carmen and Ana's father Raul (Jorge Cervera, Jr.) to let her go.
Carmen is offended by the intrusion and the challenge to her
authority. Raul, caught out at the very moment when he only wants to
celebrate his daughter's achievement, looks stricken.
Amid all this
adult turf-marking, Ana stands distraught. How can she explain to
her teacher -- much less her parents -- her many responsibilities,
frustrations, and ambitions? Young Ferrara's face registers a range
of complex emotions in a matter of seconds -- hope, disappointment,
pride, fear, and stubborn idealism. It's a remarkable moment,
happily one of many for Ferrara, whose sophisticated, intelligent
performance grounds the film even when it occasionally lurches into
soapy predictability and contrivance.
True, the film
did win the Sundance Film Festival's Dramatic Audience Award this
year. But Real Women Have Curves has more going on than
rousing "humanism" or a collection of coming-of-age clichés.
Directed by Patricia Cardoso, and written by George LaVoo and
Josefina López (based on her play), the film frames Ana's story as a
series of confrontations with Carmen. Equally willful and
impassioned, mother and daughter argue repeatedly and vigorously,
over concerns that are specific to them, for example, their
side-by-side jobs at the sweatshop. Ana, understandably, rejects the
prospect of "becoming" her mother: the last thing she wants is to be
sitting at the same sewing machine twenty-five years later. Also
understandably, Carmen begrudges Ana's seeming disdain, and wants
her respect.
Also
complicated are Ana's decision and purposeful plans to lose her
virginity. While she has no illusions about being saved by a Prince
Charming, she chooses to date a gringo from school, the well-meaning
Jimmy (Brian Sites), a practical, sensible choice. And in another
welcome twist, even as Ana engineers all sorts of subterfuges to
hide her dates from her mother, it is Carmen who has a pregnancy
scare. This is brought on by any number of needs and fears, not
least among them that Ana is looking to leave her. Further
displacing her fear of abandonment by lashing out at Ana, Carmen
criticizes her daughter's curvy body, suggesting that it limits her
marriage prospects. She goes so far as to monitor what Ana eats,
telling her that, though she likes flan, she can't have any. Don't
you know: the reverse shot has Ana deliberately spooning the desert
into her mouth.
Mature and
self-confident, Ana rejects such traditional notions of a woman's
worth, insisting that, if she enjoys and respects her body, boys --
and her mother -- can just deal with it. (In one bracing scene, she
strips to her underwear while working at her ironing station,
horrifying her mother, but rallying her fellow workers to recognize
and appreciate their own bodies, perhaps especially apt, given their
setting, in the steamy sweatshop.)
Ana also takes
it on herself to help Estela negotiate some difficult situations at
work. Though exasperated by her own assignment -- every day, hour
after hour, she irons dresses that an upscale downtown department
store will buy from Estela for $18 apiece, then mark up to $600 --
Ana begins to appreciate Estela's aspirations. The older sister once
had hopes and dreams as well, once imagined her factory as a way to
escape the barrio, not to be trapped forever. While Estela is
increasingly overwhelmed by day-to-day details, Ana brings another,
less weary perspective, making use of the code-switching skills she
has learned during years of negotiating different class, race, and
gender expectations, crossing between Beverly Hills and her
neighborhood and back again.
Ana's wisdom
and healthy self-awareness make her refreshingly different from most
high school movie girls. And if Real Women Have Curves
concludes a little too neatly, it treats its protagonist with
uncommon respect. It's a movie about a high school graduate that
leaves out the usual anxieties, about whether a girl's wearing
glasses or will have sex on prom night. Instead, it focuses on
issues that actually concern most graduates, whatever their
backgrounds or body types: making peace with the past while
imagining what comes next. |
Directed
by:
Patricia Cardoso
Starring:
Lupe Ontiveros
América Ferrera
Ingrid Oliu
George Lopez
Jorge Cervera Jr.
Written by:
Rating:
PG-13 - Parents
Strongly Cautioned.
Some material may be
inappropriate for
children under 13.
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