How The Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer is a film about three generations of Mexican-American women who live in a small Arizona border town. It is the summer between her junior and senor year of high school for the youngest, played by America Ferrera. Elzabeth Pena plays her mother, a butcher shop owner on main street, and Lucy Gallardo plays Pena's mother, a woman who wonders if life is slowly slipping away. Pena has always lived her life doing the right things her mother instilled in her as a girl and which she has instilled in her daughter Ferrera. Now she's at a crossroads, as her mother (Gallardo) becomes involved with a gardener. The film weaves the stories of the three women around each other and builds slowly as each discovers what's right and wrong about life and romance for herself. Some viewers noted how the film portrays what some women actually have to face in real life. While this viewer acknowledges that also, the women in the film also lack prudent choice-making when it comes to romance. Perhaps the director is making a statement about the lack of available, worthwhile choices in small towns regarding romance. This might be especially true for non-white women of age, limited means, and education as the film illustrates. However, educated men are faced with some of the same issues and risks. Yet we see women like Pena, a responsible businesswoman on the surface, allow herself to be taken in by a lothario like Victor Reyes, played by Steven Bauer. Ferrera is also taken in by another jerk, while avoiding the simpleton who cares for her. Only the aging Gallardo seems to have made a responsible choice. It's likely that Gallardo has made many bad choices also in her younger days. It's disappointing that the director seems to be saying that women have to live a lifetime before making good choices. The sex scenes are all realistic and trump the unreal, idealistic notions people have about first encounters. Most of them probably are as disappointing and unfulfilling as the scenes in this film. The three female leads are all equally good, and they carry this film. By the end, each character reaches a stage in life where the choice she makes is best for her. The film may seem slow and tedious to some viewers, but it does have a quality that grabs and rewards the patient viewer. *** of 4 stars.
