A movie review: Precious

"Precious"

FYI: Spoilers

Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) is about a black teenager who lives in Harlem. At the beginning of the movie you learn that her mother is on welfare and doesn’t like Precious. There is a reason for this, which comes up later in the movie. You learn she also has a child, but the child isn’t seen. And you also learn that she is pregnant again with her second child. She is offered a chance to go to an alternative school. She decides to take it even though her mother would prefer (demands) that she gets on welfare.

You start to learn about Precious throughout the movie. Her father (her mother’s boyfriend) rapes Precious and this is why she is pregnant. You learn later in the movie that she was abused starting at a very early age. This is the twisted reason why her mother hates Precious. The mother (Mo’Nique) is angry that her lover has chosen Precious over her. Of course, the mother doesn’t realize that she’s dating a pedophile. But honestly, the scene where this is revealed is raw and amazing. Her first child has Down syndrome. The child stays with the grandmother and only comes to the house when the welfare lady comes to check up on the family. Precious’ life is a mess.

Even though her life is a mess and appears hopeless, she does have some luck come her way. She comes into contact with a sympathetic welfare worker, Ms. Weiss (Mariah Carey). She also finds a teacher, Ms. Rain, (Paula Patton) at the alternative school who believes in Precious.

And then you get punched in the gut when you learn that Precious is infected with the HIV virus – her father/abuser dies from HIV, which is how she learns about the possibility that she might have the virus.

My thoughts: there is some amazing acting in this movie. And the storyline is gut wrenching. You just hope throughout the movie that her lot in life improves. But then in the back of my mind I had this thought: let’s say there are kids out there in her situation, there is no way that there are enough Ms. Weisses and Ms. Rains out there to help all the kids in the same situation as Precious. And so thinking it in that way, perhaps this movie is extremely depressing and perhaps totally a one in a million sort of moment, which therefore makes this movie so unrealistic.

Anyways, there is an interesting article in the LA Times that shines a light on this movie from the angle of race. I can see the point, but don’t agree. See link for article.