 "Photo: Lionsgate Pictures")
From the look of previews, ‘Precious’ seemed to be a certified tear-jerker, promising to bring out the sniffles and tissues to every moviegoer going to see it.
Although the film has its moments, overall it left me feeling uneasy and almost too uncomfortable to showcase any emotion at all.
The film opens up with red handwriting scrawled across the screen that is almost unreadable aside from the subtitles provided. Clareece ‘Precious’ Jones lives a hard life, and aside from her baby daughter (who is fathered by Precious’s own father) nicknamed ‘Little Mongo’ by her abusive and unsettling mother Mary Jones, life is not worth living.
Bombarded by the hardships of life and forever crumbling at the hands of her unstable mother, Precious drifts off into a parallel life unbeknownst to her own.
Dazzling lights, screaming fans, and hungry photographers waiting to take her picture are all at the hands of Precious’s alter ego, accompanied by her “light-skinned boyfriend with good hair. ”While her alter ego life is perfect, her reality greatly differs.
Precious is almost invisible to the world, opening her mouth occasionally to mumble a poorly put together sentence or stuff greasy fried chicken into it.
Her life takes an unexpected turn when she finds out she’s pregnant with her second child by her father, and her school’s principals offers her a door out of her miserable existence there by means of an alternative education.
Precious meets Blu Rain, a teacher at Each One Teach One (the alternative school) that inspires her to reach beyond her miseries, and search for a positive outlook on life.
Eventually leaving her abusive life at home with her mother, Precious moves into a safe house with her now newborn son, Abdul, and starts a new life.
After a few months of an abuse-free lifestyle, her mother returns to tell her the startling news that her father has died of AIDS. Having contracted the virus from the rape she suffered months before, Precious believes that there ultimately is no way out, and deems her own life worthless of living.
The climax of the film hits a high point when Mary Weiss (played by a make-up less Mariah Carey), a social worker down at the welfare office, calls for a meeting between Precious and her mother, Mary.
Mary openly admits to abusing Precious, sexually as well as physically, yet blames Precious for the troubles caused in her own life.
The films ends with Precious walking down the street with her two children in tow, and writing scribbled across the screen that read, ‘For precious girls everywhere’, this time in correct spelling.
The film overall is a powerful and eye-opening experience, but the depression looming over each scene and constant belittling language might leave you feeling sad and confused.
What happened to Precious? Did she die of AIDS? Does she ever find a place to settle down ? There are too many questions that are left unanswered.
Although “Precious” effectively gets its point across, it will not leave you teary eyed nor heart-broken.
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