HONORING ACADEMY WINNERS PRESENT - PRECIOUS

Well, the Oscar® season has come and gone, it would be rather strange if I skipped the award winners completely, wouldn’t it? I was recently able to watch double Oscar® winner Precious, and oh boy, was I impressed…
Now, just in case you have been living in the desert for the past couple of months, I should give you a short synopsis… Precious is the true story of Clarice Precious Jones (played by Oscar ® nominee Gabourey Sidibe). When we meet her, she is 17 and already pregnant with her second child. The father of both her children is not her own boyfriend, no, it’s her mother’s boyfriend and Precious’s own father… Precious’ mother (played superbly by a VERY Oscar ® deserving Mo’nique) survives on welfare alone. Precious is responsible for what part of the housework that gets done; her mother spends most of her time on the couch and bullies Precious. Precious’ first child, Mongo (who has Down syndrome) is taken care of by her grandmother. Now, when we meet her, Precious is in a bit of a predicament more so than usual because she is going to be kicked out of school for being pregnant again… But luckily for Precious, life is full of surprises and not all of them are unpleasant…
Now, as most brutally true to life , Precious makes very difficult viewing indeed. The arguments between Precious and her mother are, in a word, harrowing. And the fact that this film is based on a novel by the real life Precious is constantly at the back of one’s mind… Lee Daniel’s film is a very masterful reminder that one doesn’t have to travel to the third world to witness true tragedies. Ignorance, poverty, twisted relationships bring promising young women, just like Precious, to their knees every day. And it is thought-provoking that something similar could be happening very close to you… An appropriate film for the week of International Women’s Day, methinks…