Precious: Based on Push by Sapphire (2009)

"I'm gonna break through or somebody gonna break through to me."
           - Clareece "Precious" Jones

I avoided this movie for some time. I avoided this thing like the fuckin’ plague. Not because I didn’t think it would be good, but because I knew it was going to be a heavy one. This isn’t the kind of movie you throw on when you’re bored; you need to build yourself up to see this. Rest assured it is worth it.

Even if you’ve only given this movie a cursory glance online you’re probably familiar with the plot, so I won’t give it more than a sentence in this blog: Illiterate, overweight, pregnant, teenage black girl from Harlem strives to overcome abuse and better herself. I read that the director was worried that the film would be read as playing into, and up to, stereotypes of black folks. I can understand the concern (there’s the scene where the title character literally runs down the street eating a bucket of stolen fried chicken!) and it’s not unreasonable. But that’s not what bothered me. What stuck with me and made me uncomfortable was how much bad shit happens to one person. Don’t misunderstand, I know these things (rape, incest, verbal/sexual abuse, STDs, etc) unfortunately do happen to people in real life, far more often then we think in fact. But seeing this all play out in the span of a 2 hour movie and to one person is too much and moves towards melodrama. This is unfortunate because melodrama lessens the impact that these topics deserve. I suspect this is something that wasn’t addressed in translating the story from novel to film. A novel can be paced better than a film; a novel breathes in a way that a film doesn’t. A novel can have all of these experiences happen to one character and not be overwhelming. This distinction of medium could have been handled with more nuance.

So why is Precious on my list? Well it’s an incredibly well acted movie. Gabourey Sidibe and Mo’Nique received an enormous amount of praise for their work, and rightly so, but the supporting cast is just as strong. It’s also on my list because these topics are very real and deserve to be addressed. I hesitate on this last point though. Just because a film delves into a topic worth exploring, or offers a positive message, doesn’t make it a worthwhile movie going experience (see any after-school special or Lifetime movie); it still needs to be a good film and story in its own right, despite the topic. And though Precious may not be perfect in this sense it does get way more right than wrong. So it’s worth a watch.