Just saw this. Got thoughts, but don’t much feel like sharing them right now. I will say that…
…makes me question Mr White’s fucking sanity*. It’s not an Ebonics credit sequence. Precious is illiterate. The opening credits sequence is designed to look as if it were written by an illiterate person.
*Well, it’s just the latest thing to make me question his sanity.
I’ve seen it. My impression is that it’s a preachy melodrama with a pretension of seriousness. I can understand why White was offended.
There is a scene where Precious is carrying a baby in her arms, and get pushed down some stairs - I almost couldn’t watch. The crap they put this character through was just so over-the-top that I stopped seeing the characters and started seeing the writer waving a bit fat “Notice My Important Social Message” sign. So in that sense, it did remind me of “Crash”, although the dialogue wasn’t as stilted or contrived.
At least Tyler Perry’s movies know they’re melodrama and play to it.
I know someone IRL who had something pretty similar happen to her, although the attacker wasn’t a family member as I believe it is in Precious. It’s not that rare for such terrible abuse to take place. I wouldn’t call it over the top.
I’m still not very stoked on the movie, and I don’t plan on going out of my way to see it, but it’s not as farfetched as you may think.
I actually really, really liked it. I didn’t find it melodramatic. It was harsh and unapologetic in showing that for some people, things really don’t have a chance to get better. That there is no magic wand that gets waved for you. That in some cases, things really do get worse. I didn’t find anything depicted to be over the top. I thought some of it was hard to watch, but that just made the movie all that more real to me.
I just saw this. Wow, what an amazing movie this is. I loved it so much, I had to watch all the extras on the Blu-ray disc as well, just so that I could find out more about the author of the book, and the actors and the director, and even the producers and what each saw in the story.
Spoilers follow. Don’t read until you see the movie.
My absolute favorite scene in this movie is the scene where Precious goes to the “Each one, teach one” school for the first time. She’s just had to steal her breakfast and has eaten a whole bucket full of friend chicken, and as she’s waiting for her first class, she vomits this meal right out into the garbage can. And as she sits there, looking absolutely miserable, almost paralyzed, the teacher comes out and tells her to come to the class. But she doesn’t move. She just sits there. And as an audience member, I was almost trying to will her to move. Or at least say something. Anything. It created this frustration and rumbling inside of me, made me empathize so strongly with that fear, the physical sickness of this pregnant young woman, on the precipice. You want her to overcome it and go to that class, but you’re just not sure if she can do it. Ugh. So awesome.
I also really appreciated how Lee Daniels presents all the nasty, horrible abuse that is part of the story, but does it in a way so that the audience isn’t allowed to dwell on it too much. You immediately go into the girl’s defense mechanism, and it really lets you just breathe as an audience member. You don’t want to see that, and you don’t want the movie to show you that, but it shows you enough before taking you away that you know what happened.
One final note: When watching the casting special feature on the movie, I was really surprised to find out that the movie has Mariah Carey as one of the fairly important characters in the movie. I had no idea. She was just amazing. She was really good. Obviously, now that I know it’s Mariah Carey, it seems obvious when looking at those scenes, but I honestly had no idea when watching the movie. She is a really good actress apparently, when directed well.
Man, it’s a shame more people didn’t watch this movie. Yes, the subject matter is hard, but the movie handles it really well, and it really is a very hopeful and positive movie despite the subject matter.