Precious
November 22, 2009
I just saw the movie “Precious”. It was phenomenal.
Gabourey Sidibe portraying Precious (image from nypost.com)
I’m a very harsh movie critic — just ask anyone that knows me. I rarely want to watch movies because I tend to hate what Hollywood has to offer, and can rarely justify spending so much money for an hour and a half of lacking amusement.
Precious was more than worth it.
Precious is based off of the 1996 novel Push by Sapphire. It is about an overweight, teen-age, poverty stricken black woman, (fantastically portrayed by Gabourey Sidibe) and her life experiences and struggles. And waaayyyyy more than that.
The movie is so powerful. Samhita from Feministing wrote at the beginning of a post about Precious, “[Editor's Note] I haven’t seen Precious yet, but I have read about it endlessly and already cried just reading reviews.”
The NewYorkTimes.com reports that at the Cannes Film Festival “the film received a 15-minute standing ovation,” and the film won three awards at Sundance. The article also explains why the director/producer, Lee Daniels, and actress Mo’Nique gravitated to making this film:
In part, Mo’Nique was intrigued by the role of Mary Jones because, she says, she was abused by a brother when she was a young girl. The abuse supposedly began when Mo’Nique was 7 and continued for four years. “We wanted people to see the illness,” Mo’Nique explained. “Lee said, be a monster. And my brother was that monster to me. When Lee said, ‘Action,’ that’s who I became.”
The movie is filled with issues of racism, sexual abuse, teen pregnancy, poverty, sexism, HIV, weight issues, literacy, love, forgiveness, pain, hatred, self-hate, and so many more.
Movie poster (image from examiner.com)
People can walk away from this film feeling varying emotions as Latoya wrote on Jezebel.com, “Movies are subjective things, and are highly subject to the viewers interpretation. So even if Daniels’ intended the movie to be a portrait of black life that isn’t part of the “Huxtable/Cosby world,” is that how the audience will interpret it?”
The main issue that I saw with this movie was the representation of the lighter-skinned person saving the darker-skinned person.
I’ve never had the privilege (yet) of reading Push, but from what I’ve heard, the teacher in the book was supposedly darker skinned with locks, but the teacher in the film, portrayed by Paula Patton, is light skinned with straight hair, and so is Precious’ councilor, portrayed by Mariah Carey.
However, the film does depict the self-hatred Precious has within her and her desire to be white, or lighter skinned, because that is what society has told her is beautiful. It is painful to watch how horrible this social-working is, and how it really can dominate one’s life.
I advise everyone to go see Precious!
