Precious [2009]

At last, representation of the many women involved in the life and education of one young woman struggling to recover from sexual and physical abuse in poverty in New York.From a story by Sapphire, a renowned poet. A genius.(I spotted her in the screen shot!)This film follows her by truly creating Art for our times.The visuals are so clever, so creative.The challenge is to believe this way of life is survivable, and it succeeds.Thank you to everyone who had the resilience and the vision to make it so.

A must watch. If you feel like your life has been bad, this shows how one girl turned her life round. Bravo.

I gosh darn love this film. I watch it more as a comedy, I have a pretty dark sense of humour and this really hits the spots.They attempt to depict a harrowing story of this girl who keeps confronting hardships in the ghetto but every time something bad happens it’s cut short with a dream sequence of her and her imaginary light skin boyfriend getting a little freaky and I just can’t help but laugh my butt off, pardon my French.Anyway great film, I watch it whenever I feel bad and in many ways this is my own little dream sequence after a bad day.

I read the book before seeing the film and the book was horrorendous! Not that it was not well written, it was a masterpiece in the retelling of a hellish, hellish life. The story is terrible for me in that, until then, my mind had never encountered these foulest indignities this girl had to suffer and I felt that one could only write this story if it had actually happened How else could a mind conjour up these events without experiencing them? And why would anyone want to? The film, whilst shocking, is not as graphic as the book, though it still manages to capture the horror of this girl's life. Why watch something like this? Well, you never know what a book or film is really going to be like until you read or see it. And for me, learning more about the world, whether good or bad, makes me question our role as 'animals' in it.

The buzz surrounding this movie has been amazing. Two months after it's release, I decided to watch it last night, free of hype and with a clear mind. The first thing that will amaze you about the film is how the cast act like they are not acting, if that makes sense. This of course makes the debut performance of Gabourey all the more amazing and Mo'nique's Oscar stealing performance all the more scary. In fact all of the cast are flawless. Paula Patton (why is that woman not a bigger star? The camera just loves her!) puts in the right amount of strength and pathos as Precious' teacher. Biggest surprises? Lenny Kravitz playing a male nurse and mostly and it has to be said, an almost overlooked Mariah Carey playing a social worker. The film does not make for comfortable viewing but then a glimpse into a harsh reality never does. The tour-de-force Oscar worthy moment occurs right at the end between Mariah, Monique and Gabourey. Watch it, marvel at the performances and thank God you don't have to walk in the main characters' shoes.

Hard hitting.

Potentially triggering: this is powerful stuff. Portrait of abused girl. It's an incredible film with amazing performances all round but not for the faint-hearted. I forgot that Mariah Carey performed in this and she is excellent as Precious' social worker. Gabourey Sidibe as Precious and Mo'Nique as her abusive mother though...they steal the show.Harrowing portrayals but never fall into caricature.

Wow. This was difficult to watch. Even as a middle-aged, right-wing, white male I found myself tearing up on more than one occasion, more than two in fact. Let's make that three. I bet you can't watch it without crying a bit.Monique and Sidibe are totally believable, but there's also a cast of great actresses, Paula Patton and Mariah Carey being the standouts. Totally gut-wrenching cinema.You just have to see it.