Product Details

• Actors: George Lopez, Lupe Ontiveros, America Ferrera
• Directors: Patricia Cardoso
• Producers: Effie T Brown, George Lavoo
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: Spanish, French, English
• Dubbed: Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Hbo Home Video
• DVD Release Date: September 6, 2005
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (118 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000AM4P90
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,082 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Real Women Have Curves" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

While My Big Fat Greek Wedding broke box-office records in 2002, Real Women Have Curves did a better job of keeping it real. Set in the vibrant environs of East Los Angeles, with a breakthrough performance by Latina newcomer America Ferrera, this comedic drama takes a familiar subject--a bright teenager struggling to define her identity--and turns it into an authentic celebration of feminine empowerment. Eighteen-year-old Ana (Ferrera) has scholarship potential, her first boyfriend, and a chubby figure that her similarly overweight mother (Lupe Ontiveros, perfectly cast) won't stop harping about. Mom insists that Ana work in her sister's dressmaking sweatshop, continuing a family tradition that can only break her spirit. How Ana defies this fate--and how director Patricia Cardoso captures the proud tenacity of several full-figured seamstresses--is what makes this film (adapted from a play by Josefina Lopez) so uniquely refreshing. Greek Wedding made more money, but Real Women--which is just as funny--makes a lot more sense. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

A $6 million box office theatrical run followed awards and acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival. Should Ana leave home, go to college and experience life? Or stay home, get married, and keep working in her sister's struggling garment factory? It may seem like an easy decision, but for 18 year-old Ana, every choice she makes this summer will change her life. Right now, she may be making clothes for less shapely women. But Ana is about to discover that real women take chances, have flaws, embrace life, and above all have curves!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 71 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Can Flan ruin your life? October 30, 2002

By MICHAEL ACUNA VINE™ VOICE

The director/screenwriter, Patricia Cardoso and the co-screenwriter George LaVoo of "Real Women have Curves," have devised a movie centering around some very fascinating subjects: how we perceive ourselves, how other's perceive us and the friction and or disparity between the two. At the center of this story is a proud, hard-working Mexican American family: mother Carmen (Lupe Ontiveros) and her youngest daughter Ana (America Ferrera). Ana is an honor student and valedictorian of her graduating high school class. Her dream is to accept her scholarship at Columbia University and to escape the narrow confines and thinking of her East Los Angeles neighborhood and family. But mother, Carmen has other ideas: Carmen wants Ana to forgo college for awhile and to work in Ana's sister's garment factory so as to help support the family.
On top of this, Carmen is continually nagging at Ana to lose weight. "How do you expect to find a husband and have children with all that weight on you?" Carmen asks Ana. It is to Cardoso's credit that Ana has a very positive body image and of course it doesn't hurt that America Ferrera is quite lovely and imbues Ana with a sort of fierce and dynamic determination that makes people stand up and take notice not because of her size but because of her mind.
On the surface Carmen's plans for Ana seem cruel and small minded but in reality it is a natural trait of first generation immigrants to place family about all else. Ontiveros plays Carmen not as an ogre but as a woman who fears for her daughter's safety in the outside world. What Carmen doesn't realize is that Ana has inherited her courage and presence of mind from her and her husband: Ana is a product, the physical manifestation of Carmen's wishes and dreams of a better life for her children and herself....
The set piece of "Real Women have Curves" is a scene in the garment factory when all the women, lead by Ana, decide to shed their clothing initially because of the heat. There is a palpable feeling of exaltation and release in this scene on several levels: "curvy" women not being embarrassed to disrobe and expose their bodies that becomes a universal call to all women to embrace their physical selves and to reject what society and our culture dictates as the female ideal. In essence, all females are ideal is what Cardoso is saying.
"Real Women have Curves" is a small film with the nerve and the guts to question and then supply answers to some of the stuff our culture bombards us with daily. Stuff that can either stifle you...or make you stronger and more resolute. Read more ›

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun Movie! May 6, 2007

By Desiree

Format:DVD

I loved this movie....it is exceptionally well acted, witty, with a smart and biting script. Though it's technically a "chick flick", I think men would enjoy it also (although maybe not admit that). I saw it on television and liked it so much I wanted to see the unedited version. You can never go wrong with a movie made by HBO, and is something that you will want to pull out of the drawer and watch again and again.

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Portrayal Seems Genuine ! April 11, 2007

By ' Groovin' guy VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Great movie for all ages. This film is very enjoyable and it can be appreciated by any age group. It seems like a good family movie.

It's about a Latino family and their struggles with their dress shop. It is also about the choice that Ana (college bound) must make. I felt the pressure that the family put her through. She is a very bright and independent girl who's made to feel obligated to work in the family's business.

Characters are portrayed very authentically and believable.

Nothing too far fetched (except maybe the underwear dancing factory workers), though that was a hysterical scene.

Loved it!
Recommend it!

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Best Body/Self Acceptance Movie I've Seen November 23, 2002

By R. Kearns-White

If you can,patronize this movie! It was a wonderful film with a smart, strong-willed, plus-sized, smart-mouthed teenage girl as its protagnist(Ana played by America Ferrera with wonderful realism). Although it is set in East L.A. and deals with the Mexican-American experience, there are none of your stereotypical elements--teen pregnancy, gangs, killing, or your general socially irresponsible behavior.

It had realistic family dynamics. Many of the people left the theatre stating that the mother in the movie (or the sister or the grandpa) reminded them of their real life equivalent. The general message of the movie was to accept yourself for who you are and not be afraid to live outside the box--whether it's being a fat girl in a thin-obsessed society or deciding to go to college instead of the family tradition of going to work after high school. (Ana and her mother clash over the place of women in society. Ana's mother selfishly belives that Ana should go to work and skip college, although she's smart enough for a full scholarship, because she had to start working at age 13.)

The best part of the movie is at the sweatshop/factory where Ana strips off her shirt because she's so hot.(They're not allowed to turn on the fan because dust will blow onto the dresses.) Her mother is aghast because Ana is such "a butterball." The other women there then start whipping off their clothes to show their "flaws." Soon, you have 4 women on the screen who are wrinkled, fat, flabby, celluite-laden standing in their underwear. Why was this the best part? Because they were all beautiful. Ana says she doesn't want to change her size because it's a big "f*ck you" to the skinny-obsessed society. All the women in the theater clapped at this point. It was a feel good movie that was well made.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Gift to Women of All Sizes & Aspirations March 9, 2007

By Cammie Hering

Format:DVD

It is so wonderful to have a film about women learning to just be who you are, regardless of class background and/or size. A great story of accepting yourself and others, and demanding that you be accepted for who and what you are.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Mother-Daughter Thing March 26, 2007

By Anne Thierfelder

Format:DVD

I liked this movie a lot. It's not a powerhouse, it's what I think of as a "whisperer." I watched it months ago, and there are some particular moments that keep playing in my mind, still, because I could really feel them. I'm far from being a Latina, but I love Latino/Mexican/Central American culture, so I watched this movie expecting it to be aimed at an audience much younger than me. I love "Ugly Betty" and thought seeing America Ferrera in one of her movies would be interesting. There were several mother-daughter scenes in this movie which really brought forth long-buried memories of exchanges with my own mother, moments where you realize how uncomfortable you're making your mother and you can't help it. As an adult I realize what those moments were, and they don't seem so large and terrible now, but at the time they were. This movie brought them back into focus and made me realize the importance of growing up, of becoming your own person, and the necessity for every daughter to have the courage to "step over" their mother and become herself. It's interesting to watch Ana come through the process and finally realize how HARD her family works to make her able to take that step over. On another note, I am appalled and disappointed at how many fans of Ms. Ferrera have posted on various sites that they love her, love that she's not the usual lookalike skinny stick-insect, and then finish their post with something like, "she'd be prettier if she'd lose weight." It's mean and false. This movie also made me go back and watch "The Joy Luck Club" again, another excellent mother-daughter reflection.