“Because now I wear original designs from Estela Garcia’s boutique ‘Real Women Have Curves’”(69). These are the last lines of the play Real Women Have Curves by Josefina López. Compared to the movie ending we saw of Ana walking down a street in New York City, this is quite the different ending. I think that this line in particular shows just how much the film adaptation differs from the play itself. That’s not to say the film lessens the integrity of the plot, but there are definite differences between the two.

One of the bigger differences between the movie and the play has to do with the characters. The play introduces five characters- Ana, Estela, Carmen, Pancha, and Rosali. The movie made Ana the center of the plot, but in the play she doesn’t have such a prominent role. We get a more in depth view of these women who work in Estela’s factory. The reader does get to know Ana a little better, in terms of her dreams and aspirations because we get to hear her journal entries, but the she doesn’t play such a central role as she does in the film. This aspect of the play is compromised quite a bit in the movie.

Estela is one of the characters that looses a lot of her dimensions in film. After watching the movie, I had a difficult time trying to place Estela in one single category. I felt that she was traditional, but then she deviated from norms a little bit. She wasn’t as liberated as Ana but then again she wasn’t as much of a prude as Carmen. In the play we learn that Estela is actually undocumented which we don’t get to see in the film. She also has somewhat of a love interest in the play. It doesn’t pan through because Estela realizes he “didn’t see the real [her]” (59). She wants someone that is interested in her intellect and he didn’t realize that. Estela is much more of a fascinating character in the play and the movie looses quite a bit of her back-story for the sake of making Ana the protagonist.

Carmen’s character was radically different in the play than in the movie. Her character in the movie was almost unbearable at times because she was so critical of her daughters. The scene in the movie when the women take their clothes off in the factory except Carmen is different in the play. Carmen is totally willing to show off her body and its imperfections, which she embraces.

Compared to the movie, the play seemed to be the one with the more feminist undertones. As previously mentioned, the play only had five characters. Each scene took place inside of the factory so the setting was much more intimate. That gave each character the opportunity to have more depth. This seems to be more of a feminist practice because each of the women has equal opportunity.

So if you get the chance and if you liked the movie, you should read the play. It is a quick read and you get a more in depth understanding of the characters.

López, Josefina. Real Women Have Curves: A Comedy. Woodstock, IL: Dramatic Pub., 1996. Print.