Bangkok--3 Apr--Outcome PR
A woman should be judged by the quality of her mind and thoughts.
Not by how closely her body matches the so-called "ideal".
— Critically acclaimed HBO Original Movie, REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES tells the story of 18-year-old Ana (America Ferrera), a first-generation Mexican-American from East Los Angeles, who struggles to strike a balance between her mainstream ambitions and her traditional cultural heritage as she attempts to forge her own path in life.
Ana has an appetite for life, for love, for ideas but not everybody in her family and society appreciates where that appetite is taking her. Real women take chances, have flaws, embrace life — and, they have curves. For Ana, to accept oneself is to love oneself and she desperately tries to convince everyone to grasp this belief too.
Graduating from high school, Ana would like nothing better than to attend college — a goal her teacher and mentor (George Lopez) wholeheartedly supports. But Ana's mother, Carmen (Lupe Ontiveros), has other plans for her "baby," feeling that "it's her time" to contribute to the family and join her at a sewing factory where Ana's older sister has a dressmaking business. Having worked since she was 13, Carmen refuses to comprehend the possibility of a different albeit better life for Ana, and has mapped out Ana’s life for her — work at her sister’s factory, lose weight so she can ‘land’ a nice husband, have children.
Reluctantly, Ana agrees to work in the business. She ends up learning lessons at the factory, and with a young man (Brian Sites), that help her come to terms with herself, her body and her future — paving the way towards her ultimate independence.
The movie is based on the play by Josefina Lopez and is directed by Patricia Cardoso. Co-produced and written by George LaVoo, one of Variety’s Top Ten Producers To Watch at the 2002 Cannes Festival, this charming, brilliantly detailed drama is highly celebrated for its raw simplicity and stark honesty, defying popular ideas of immigrant families in America.
AWARD-WINNING HBO ORIGINAL MOVIE, REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES PREMIERES ON HBO, AT 9PM (BKK) / 10PM (HK.MSIA.PHIL.SIN) — PAGE 2 OF 2
This film largely achieves to portray the truth in the adage “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, and that one should not be judged by the image they project. What might be considered fat and ugly, can in truth, be beautiful. So candid is the delivery of these messages in this movie that we come to ponder why caring about appearance is universal, we should not love who we are first and worry about the outside later, and why not celebrate imperfections?
REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES is “anchored by splendid performances from an honored screen veteran [Ontiveros
] and a sparkling newcomer [Ferrera
] who instantly transform themselves into a believable mother-daughter pair”, as hailed by the Seattle Times.
Ontiveros delivers a forceful performance as the mother who refuses to let “the little one” go. Despite her emotional blackmailing and continuous taunting of her youngest daughter about her weight; she evokes a sense of sympathy rather than dislike. In this her acting debut, Ferrera is remarkable in her portrayal of the extremely frustrated but restrained Ana. She is an intelligent, determined young lady, resulting in a quarrelsome mother-daughter relationship, but she never doubts Carmen’s love for her and is kind to her.
The film was honored twice at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival when it first premiered, bagging both the Audience and Special Jury Awards for stars Lupe Ontiveros and America Ferrera. It went on to open the prestigious New Director / New Films series at New York's Museum of Modern Art and was subsequently selected for screening at the Toronto and San Sebastian film festivals.
Don’t miss America Ferrera’s outstanding debut in REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES, premiering on HBO, 4 April 2006 at 9pm (BKK) / 10pm (HK.MSIA.PHIL.SIN).
Singapore-based HBO Asia is able to bring the best of Hollywood to Asia first because of its licensing deals with major Hollywood studios - Columbia/TriStar, Paramount Pictures (DreamWorks), Universal Studios and Warner Bros. In addition to the proprietary and award-winning HBO Original programs that are produced exclusively for HBO viewers, HBO works with a large number of major independent production companies to secure exclusive rights to a host of quality movies. HBO Asia is a joint venture of media giants Paramount Films, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Time Warner and Universal Studios.
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