Thoughts on Precious

I just got home from watching precious. From what I saw in the trailers it seemed like it was going to be a great movie. In fact, it was perhaps one of the most highly anticipated movies of the year for me. I am a sucker for a dramatic movie. I'm not just talking star crossed lovers torn apart by fate (though that will hold me over just fine.) I'm talking about gut wrenching, rip your heart right out of your chest, stomp on it and make you cry type of drama. I'm talking the greats, Shindlers List, Hotel Rwanda and American History X.

Happy movies just dont do it for me. I can laugh, but I easily forget those movies. I was raised in such a fake culture, where everyone wears a smile as default... that happy almost doesn't feel real to me sometimes. I like drama that will shake me from the shallowness of everyday life and make me feel alive. I do prefer a cathartic cry rather than a good laugh.

Though I do like a good tragedy, I must say that Precious was a major fail in my book. It has to be realistic or at least relatable on some level. Otherwise I will disconnect. I can understand genocide because I've studied it in school. I can understand racism because to a certain extent, I've experienced it. Precious was so overdone, I disconnected and just wanted the movie to end.

At first, it seems right up my ally. Clarice Precious Jones is a 16 year old morbidly obese black girl living in a ghetto. I believe its Harlem, I forget. She is falling through the cracks of the educational system. Shes 16 and still in middle school whats worse is that shes pregnant with her second child and in a physically abusive home where her mother routinely tried to beat her over the head with pots and pans and daily bombards her with messages that shes worthless. This drew me in, and I would be raving about this movie if thats where it stayed... however as the story kept unfolding, I began to disconnect.

We come to find that Precious' first child was actually born with downs syndrome. Her father is sexually abusing her and is the man who has impregnated her twice now. She has been suffering though sexual abuse since the age of three by her father. When her mother sees precious' new child, she holds him and throws him on the floor and proceeds to beat precious and even throw a TV at her head to kill her. Thankfully Precious escapes. She is illiterate and has little prospects for a future, any hopes she may have had are dashed when her mother comes to visit her and informs her that her father (who has been abusing her) has died........of AIDS. Precious gets tested and finds out she has AIDS as well.

imagine two hours of this. where every fifteen minutes another bomb is dropped. There was no resolution in the movie save her walking away from her mother. Life sucks for her and there is no way out. I don't need a happy ending... but I do need an ending. Shindler fled penniless as a war criminal, the war ended in Hotel Rwanda, and Derek's brother is shot and killed after he recants white supremacy. I don't need a happy ending, but I need an ending none the less. There was simply too much drama in Precious to where I could no longer relate and wondered "what's next? is she going to be bitten by a rabid dog too?"

don't waste your money.

I snuck into new moon afterwards hoping to get a decent movie. It was mediocre at best, but hey I didn't expect oscars from them, its a tween novel. I was much more disappointed by Precious.