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Rating: 5 out of 5
Anyone who has ever said they have a hard life has never seen the movie, Precious. I always avoided this movie because I thought it was going to be some girly movie or a movie where the girl is so full of herself that she has a reality check. Well, I was utterly wrong. This is one of the most heartbreaking, gut-wrenching movies that I have seen. While watching it, you will wish and hope with all your heart that the main character can finally see why she is the name her mother gave her…..Precious.
Directed and co-produced by Lee Daniels with a script written by Geoffrey S. Fletcher that was adapted from the 1996 novel Push by Sapphire. Precious starts off in Harlem in the year 1987. Sixteen-year-old Claireece Jones (Sidibe), who goes by her middle name Precious, daydreams in class. Precious is illiterate, overweight, and pregnant with her second baby. The gut-wrenching statement that Precious tells the audience that both of her children are fathered by her biological father. Her infant daughter, Mongo, has Down Syndrome and lives with her great grandmother. Precious lives with her mother, Mary (Mo’Nique). Mary is a downright evil and spiteful woman who physically and emotionally abuse Precious every chance she gets. Mary does nothing all day but smoke and watches television while collecting that welfare check through fraud. Mary thinks school is a waste of time and would rather her daughter stay at home and collect a welfare check also. With such a hard life, Precious spends her time daydreaming about escaping the pain she is in, but reality sets in again when her school’s principal transfers her to an alternative school. While at the new school, Precious meets the loving Ms. Blu Rain (Patton), who starts giving her the confidence and belief that she is more than what she believes she is. With Ms. Rain’s help, Precious soon begins to learn how to read and write and starts seeing a future for herself. With each new day, Precious soon begins her journey on making the world her own and leaving her abusive mother behind.
Wow. Just wow. Sometimes it is hard to start reviewing a terrific film. Director Lee Daniels did a phenomenal job with this movie. When watching the movie, several words come to mind. Courage, hope, and perseverance. All those words resonate with this film in such a way that you want to cheer for the main character. When Precious first appears and daydreams in class, she looks like another lazy girl, but then you get the full back story and meet her mother. You can only feel sadness for the girl because she is only sixteen but acts like a twenty-five-year-old. You see that her life is in no way easy at all. Her only way to escape the world is daydreaming a glamourous life. Lee does this so well as showing a very troubling scene that changes into one that is glamorous. Some of the daydreaming scenes are powerful. The one where she is growing up and wishing life was different with her mother as the fought was one that jerked at my own heart.
Yet, through all of this, you will feel happy for Precious. Even when life deals her a very, very, very shitty card from her daddy, you feel happy. Why do you feel that way? She found a teacher that never gave up on her and pushed her to a new limit. BIG UP to all the teachers out there who shape the young minds of all the students. That is what Paula Patton’s character does. She never gives up on Precious. She fights for her and shows her how extraordinary she is. The most powerful scenes are when she and Precious go back and forth in her writing journal. To spend the time to respond and learn about a child is something special to watch.
The word courage is for this film because, in the end, Precious gains to the courage to truly fight back against her evil mother. Precious whipped that ass and rolled out with her baby. You wanted to clap because she got out of such a toxic situation that messed with her growth as a person. Yet, sadness hit because that was her mother, and they had absolutely no love between each other. Yet in the end, you clapped when Precious walked away from her mother with her head held up high looking towards the future that she wanted.
Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe starring in her first role must be applauded. She did a phenomenal job of embodying the young girl and the pain she was going through. Whether it was her facial expression, her body language, or the tone in her voice, Sidibe deserves all the credit in the world at making this character feel tortured but also emphatic towards.
Three actresses must be given props for the acting job that they performed. First, Mariah Carey plays Ms. Weiss. Honestly, I am not the biggest Mariah Carey fan. Have y’all seen Glitter? If you haven’t, then you don’t need to because it’s pretty bad. Carey redeemed herself with this role. She was powerful as Ms. Weiss, and it showed in her work. Carey played Ms. Weiss as a character that wanted to help and spoke it as it is. The beautiful Paula Patton was exceptional in her role as Ms. Rain. Everyone should have a teacher like Ms. Rain. Patton brought her passion and love by being the teacher that never gave up on her girls. No matter what they went through, she was there for them and tried her best for them. When Precious was found in the school, you see Ms. Rain calling around to find a place for her to stay and live. That is true love right there.
Let me talk about Mo’Nique as her role as Mary. There hasn’t been a person that I HATED more that this character. Mo’Nique seems so real and authentic in her role that it is terrifying. You should never hit a woman, but DAMN! I wanted to beat the s**t out of Mary. She was a person looking for sympathy, but she was ruthless and diabolical towards her daughter. In the end, when she was crying in front of the social worker, I would’ve felt pity towards her. Still, she berated her daughter for so long that there was no pity or sympathy to give her. She was the definition of a woman broken but took her rage out on the wrong person. Honestly, how you going to try and throw a TV on your daughter and grandchild? Overall, big up to Mo’Nique because that is how one should genuinely play the role of a character.
Precious is one of the best movies to watch. Even though it is somewhat painful to watch, we smile at the end, knowing that the main character is off and going to do great things. Precious is a movie about growth and finding the courage to change the way one thinks and how they view themselves. Go watch this movie.
