All Claireece Precious Jones wants is a boyfriend with light skin and (really) nice hair to love her and make her and her babies feel good and protected.
What Claireece Precious Jones has is a lazy, abusive, jealous, miserable monster of a mother, one baby with Down syndrome she had when she was 12 and another one on the way, in her belly, both of which are fathered by her Father who has been raping her since she was a tiny little girl.
Most 16 year olds can barely handle bad hair days, crushes and pop quizes and while all those things are blessedly still on Precious' mind-she has decidedly bigger fish (or pork's feet, as the case may be) to fry.
Lee Daniels' (who previously brought us sunshiny little numbers like "Monster's ball" and "Shadowboxer") adaptation of (from what I hear) painfully graphic, illiterate/phonetic vernacular driven, first person narrated, extremely best-selling novel by Sapphire is a movie that deals with some pretty major topics.
Topics so major that the two hours of cinema they were poured into could easily just be turned into sensationalist drivel (stunt casting to boot: Mariah Carey and Mariah Carey's mustache as the social worker, Mo'nique as Mary, the wink-wink-nudge-nudge named monster of a Mother, Lenny Kravitz as the male nurse John...) but it is to it's credit that it actually emerges as a free-standing, oddly poignant piece of film.
The said stunt cast carries much of the credit: no one is flashy or overacts, no one makes anything more melodramatic than it needs to be and above all of them shines Gabourey Sidibe, a first time actress who was probably born to play this role.
She stands and shines, and has this look of determination on her face at all times and never asks anyone for help, wanting to power through all her problems by herself, independent and self-aware almost to a fault.
The movie opens with her being kicked out of junior high (she is 16 but can barely read) because she is pregnant again and her principal a woman who has just barely enough sanity and integrity, to not have completely given up on what must be the most obvious case of a maltreated child ever, sends her to Each one Teach one, an alternative school. ("An alternative being a choice one makes, to do something a different way" - the nice lady at the front desk explains to Precious)
As I just mentioned, Precious can barely read so in order to get to GED class she has to make it through ABC Class thaught by Miss Blu Rain (the novel IS written by someone who calls themselves Sapphire, so all the names are EXACTLY what you'd expect someone who calls themselves Sapphire to come up with) where she is encouraged to write every day in a journal, and bond with a motley crew of other sassy, illiterate girls who form a sisterhood that only a novel/movie about hope can have: catty but well meaning, feisty but fragile, big mouthed but shy.
They're like "Mean Girls" if Oprah gave them a makeover for maximum poignancy effect.
Precious writes and reads and gives birth to a healthy baby boy and bonds with her social worker and her male nurse (really the only male character in the movie, whom the girls promptly emasculate on the basis of his career choice making him as safe to be around as a girl) and runs away from home (not before a horrifying altercation with her Mother which seriously left me cowering behind my scarf. Mo'nique is a shoe in for every award in the world for this movie, you mark my words.) and discovers her father left her with something way more scary and deadly than just a baby and finally cries.
Not a lot, just a little but when she does-not an eye remains dry in the movie theater. (and trust me, by then, we've all seen more cry-worthy stuff than most movies have to offer).
There is no happy ending, but there is some semblance of a hopeful one, which, I imagine, is the most one can expect from not a fairy tale (the movie is blessedly non-preachy, something I was most afraid of walking in).
You leave the movie tired and drained and all shook up, and as you walk out you wonder WHY IN THE WORLD people brought their children to see this movie (for serious, there were some 10 year olds in there that definitely should have been spending their Sunday afternoons in a less scarring environment) and you give your friends a hug and call your Mother and your Father and tell them you love them and then you go and eat some food because you can't eat those feelings (but no drinking because alcohol is a depressant, and the last thing you need in the world after this movie is a(nother) depressant), buy yourself two dozen roses and then, in your apartment, on your couch, you look inside and you realize, you have it pretty good.
Which, I guess, ultimately makes this the feel-good movie of the season, because, after "Precious", life seems like nothing but a walk in the park.
And everyone likes feeling good about themselves.
So-see this.
God loves a cheerful giver.
Mo’nique is an outstanding villain- utterly convincing to the point that I want to vomit looking at that picture of her
I didn't cry as much as I thought I would [though I did have a few moments including that final fight, holy shit]. Daniels does a very interesting job of balancing the heart-wrenching with the hopeful and the funny and the downright weird. You move directly from scenes of violence to scenes of either fantasy or humor - the character of Joanne, especially, brought the funny hardcore.
But that's life, isn't it? Fucked up stuff and funny stuff, juxtaposed, all the time, back and forth, and like Precious, you just have to keep moving forward through it all.
I didn't realize my mom ran off and raised another family.
i saw the movie and it is outstanding.Some parts were laugh worthy,but it was really touching.I cried during the confession that her mother had with Ms.Weiss.That was really REAL to the extreme point. i enjoyed the movie and in the end i realized that i have it good.by they way i'm 13.
I thought this movie was just like "Mommie Dearest". Too many scenes that were supposed to be sad turned out to be very funny. I don't get how people are all sad about this one. Half the theater was laughing with me. If that many people are laughing, then something just didn't work here. I left not sure if this was supposed to be a comedy. Not good!
I thought this movie was not good, in the way, it describe such a horror of a life for precious, in real life, mothers protect their children, with their life if need be, the treatment done to precious by her mom, was way over the top, there was a great need for balance in this movie. ok, she was poor, lived in poverty with her mom, had children by her father, this is bad, no doubt, I feel, if precious, would have been allowed to meet some of her dreams, there is guys who like big ladies, so she should have been able to met someone, the nurse aide, should have been a love interest for her, after all, he was her heart desire, all through it, it was feel with hopelessness for precious, even after going to school, graduating, which was a good point, she finds out she has hiv, come on, now, this should have been written out of the movie, instead, it should have should how she came out of her condition, went on to make a better life for her children, she could have gotten social service to help with the child care for her children, went on to a community college,despite all she had to endure with her mother, her determination, to achieve should have been more focused on, than the negative, this movie had the potential, i feel to be an great movie, had it had enough balance in it, life is such,that no one has hard time forever, balance is missing, i was disappointed, Tyler Perry with his exceptional skills in writing, and production, should have updated this movie, so it would show better in spite of her trials, precious proved to herself, and her mom, she moved forward, made an success out of her life, showing much love for her children, meeting a man, who would love, protect her and her children, having a chance to dress up in the pretty clothes, she fantasized about, with her dream man. this ending would have been more motivating, and inspiring. As far, as her mom, she should have been placed in a mental hospital, to get some help, for her low self esteem, and learn it wasnt her daughter fault, it was the type of men, she chose, so she could grow into a better person, i saw so many directions this movie could have gone, to show no matter what comes your way, faith, determination, can change it. instead she is seen in the end of the movie, with her children, walking down the stairs, going where? to do what?,,,,,I WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED..
Ladym this is a period . Period, this is ladym. You two get acquainted.
don't be a dick, michael.
i just wanna know if there is going to be a second part to this movie is very interesting to know how precious ends up now that she wants nothing to do with her mother...is she going to be able to achieve without her mother?