Review of Real Women Have Curves

I saw this movie in the same weekend I watched "Bend It Like Beckham," and the two movies are very similar in theme. "Real Women" is somewhat darker (but not much) and takes itself a little more seriously, but it's still a very good movie about a girl coming to terms with her family and herself in working-class L.A. It's a leisurely paced film and makes many good points about the stifling effects parents can have when they refuse to see the potential in their own children, and about the need for children to sometimes ignore the guilt they feel when they defy their parents in order to meet that potential. The young lady who stars does a mostly fine job with the role, but I never felt she was completely invested in what her family thought in the first place, so didn't fully appreciate the conflicts she was supposed to be having with herself over deserting them.

The scene in which the group of female dress-shop workers strip down to compare cellulite and then proceed to work in the semi-nude is hilarious, and one of the film's highlights.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

Grade: B