This is a good story. The close-knit Latino family is opened to our eyes so that we are like a peeping mousie in their household. Ana (America Ferrera) is so wise and wonderful at 18, in her perception of love and young men, well, this is a revelation to those who were brought up clinging and helpless-seeming. Ana has a few insecurities about weight, no doubt inculcated with a trip hammer by her relentless mother, superbly played by Lupe Ontiveros, whom many will recall as the eagle-eyed mother-in-law of Gabrielle on "Desperate Housewives," but Ana knows that she is so much more than poundage. She knows her worth. Ana is not a perfect teen. She "shows herself," as they used to call pouting and glum expressions on the young!, and quite often is resentful and disapproving (sometimes rightly) of her elders and their errors, which she can see but they cannot. But her heart is in the right place. The men in this movie (particularly Jorge Cervera, Jr. as Ana's father and Felipe de Alba as the grandfather) are kind and understanding, never contentious testosterone-bearers. These men seem to submit to the women characters while still retaining their machismo. They have a chivalry and sensitivity about them, but they are not weepy or weak. Ana's boyfriend (Brian Sites) is a real love! He is never licentious or libidinous (in an offensive way). Their first-ever sexual encounter is good-humored, trusting, planned carefully by Ana who bravely purchases the condoms, and, when it's over, she has this valiant capability of detaching from romantic mush and unrealistic expectations, facing the young man's departure for college as a signal that time and events will inevitably separate them and she does not require him to make sappy pledges of fidelity or eternal love. Ana was magnificent. She did tell him he'd probably end up with a skinny girl, but maybe she was just being statistically accurate and not self-condemning. I liked this girl and rooted for her to claim that scholarship and get that education, knowing that she would then be able better to help her struggling family, including her exemplary older sister, touchingly and winningly portrayed by Ingrid Oliu. I never had the least fear that going away to Columbia University on scholarship would sever Ana's ties to her loving family or to the problematic mother, whose own life experiences made her the way she was, the way many mothers are when their daughters are about to make novel choices that will take them beyond where their mothers got to go. Love is very much warp and woof for this family. The character I liked less, because of her evident avarice and heartlessness, was the dress company rep, whose bottom line was her only line. Teenagers would be wise to see this one, especially girls. They might be inspired to like their appearances more because of Ana's fearless mien! You don't have to be size 2! And girls might try to find a boyfriend like Ana's Jimmy. What a sweet duo they were. Would that all young people, bent on losing their virginities, did it in such gentle, safe, and trusted circumstances as these two youngsters did it. This movie is a nice slice of life. Very well done. (I hate those dress companies that sell for $600 and give those sweating seamstresses $18/dress! What piggish tyrants exist in the business world! Down with unfair sweatshops and up with these good people!)
Review of Real Women Have Curves
