Precious (Lee Daniels, 2009): USA
Reviewed by Danae Thomas. Viewed on DVD.
Precious (Lee Daniels, 2009) is a film full of intense emotions, and graphic images that will stay remained in your mind and memory for quite some time. At least it did for me, I watched this film last month and the images, and emotions of the film are still stuck with me. There are many astounding performances done in this film which includes: Mo’Nique who played Precious mother won an award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, and the actress of Precious Gabourey Sidibe . Although this film is indeed difficult to watch because of everything that Precious experiences in her life such as: being physically and verbally abused by her mother, and raped by her father having two kids because of him, this is a must see film because we get a complete experience of what Precious is dealing with and going through. Precious tells the audience what she is feeling at that exact extreme moment of abuse or rape, and imagines a complete different world of fame and glamor.
The film starts off by showing the life that Precious leads which is being very overweight, gets teased by kids in high school, is bullied by her mother at home and raped by her father. Precious’s principal encourages her to consider going to an alternative school that will give her special attention towards her education. Precious exceeds very well in math which is what the teachers notice, and want her to continue doing well in. However Precious’s mother discourages her by giving her many insults by telling her she’s stupid, and saying “school won’t help none.” Precious goes go the school and develops a close bond with her new teacher Blu Rain and gets a good education. When Precious has her second child her mother throws a fit and physically harms Precious and her child. Precious then seeks help from her teacher and she lets Precious and her baby stay at her place for awhile while she finds a better home for them. When Precious’s welfare counselor Mrs. Weiss played by Mariah Carey pop artist, starts telling Precious that her mother wants to see her and grandchild again Precious agrees to it. When her mother comes into the room it becomes a very powerful intense scene as she confesses that she let her husband physically rape her daughter at age 3. Precious then tells her mother that she won’t be seeing her or her kids anymore and walks out of the room it is hard at this point to not applaud for Precious as she is strong enough to say goodbye to her mother for good.
The acting in this film is astounding especially in the scene where Precious mother unfolds her emotions to her and the well fare counselor. As she confesses how she was jealous that her husband gave Precious more attention than he did her tears are forming and she is choking up on every word that comes out of her mouth. This scene moved me the most because I could feel how upset and angry she was and never thought about what she was feeling during the film. The actress who played Precious was also outstanding because her facial expressions were always powerful as her mouth would be in a tight frown and by looking at her eyes you can see pain, and loneliness. Another powerful scene is when Precious lets out her frustration and anger in class tears are streaming down her face and she yells and screams out words of anger towards her father and mother. It’s hard to not feel remorse for Precious at this point as she is pouring out her emotions.
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