Precious

The movie Precious: Based on the Novel

'Push' by Sapphire, or simply Precious, is a 2009
American drama film, directed and co-produced
by Lee Daniels. The script was written
by Geoffrey S. Fletcher, adapted from the 1996
novel Push by Sapphire. The film stars are
Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), Mo'Nique
(Mary), Paula Patton (Ms. Rain) and Mariah
Carey(Ms. Weiss).

Synopsis

In Harlem, 1987. Sixteen-year-old

Claireece Jones that goes by her middle name
Precious is illiterate and overweight. She is
pregnant with her second child, both children
fathered by her biological father, who has continually raped her since she was a child.
Her infant daughter, Mongo, that was born with Down Syndrome lives with Precious
grandmother. Precious lives with her mother Mary, who abuses her both physically
and emotionally. Mary does nothing but smoke, watch television and collect welfare,
also she believes that education does nothing for Precious, preferring her to get the
money from the welfare. To escape her life, Precious often daydreams of herself in
glamorous situations. Because of her recent pregnancy, Precious principal transfers her
into an alternative school. In dealing with the school's supportive teacher Miss Blu
Rain, Precious begins to believe that she can have a future by learning how to read and
write. Despite some devastating news from her mother following the birth of her child,
Precious also begins to believe she can escape the grips of her abusive mother, who,
up to this point, was Precious only real support.
She is desperately hoping that one day someone will break through to her, or she
will break through to someone. Her life is grey and sad, and these dreams are her way
of holding on. When something bad happens, she dreams herself away to a better
place, because the truth is too hard to handle.

Acting

In the movie we can see so many good actors and artist such as Gabourey Sidibe
who plays Precious, Mo´Nique as Mary; Paula Patton as Ms. Blu Rain; Mariah Carey as
the social worker, Ms. Weiss; Lenny Kravitz as the nurse who helped Precious giving
birth, John McFadden.
During the film, we can see so many good scenes, but the scenes that are truly
amazing are when Precious and her mom fight. In the first discussion, when Precious
finishes talking with the director from her school, her mom tries to hit her with a pan,
and then her mom continues to tell her that school is not worth it and that she should
go to the welfare, also that she is dumb, and she should have aborted her. This specific
scene is very powerful because it must have been hard for Mo´Nique to get in this role
of an abusive mother, but she played this part very well and, she was nominated for an
Oscar and she won.
Also, Gabourey did a good job playing the part of Precious because it must have
been hard to understand and be in the “skin” of a teenager that has been through
what Precious went. The scene that I think that Gabourey did a good job playing this
part was when she got home after giving birth to her second child, Abdul. After she got
home, she and her mom got in a physical fight. I think that this scene is very powerful
because we can see that Precious did something to protect her baby and herself and
did not hide like the other time.
Setting

In the movie the settings where most in her home, in the school “Each One Teach
One” and the welfare. The locations were not very detailed, but they were simple.
Precious home was very dark and messy, and I think resembles a very toxic
environment for her because of her mom. Unlike the new school, which as more
natural light where Precious is determined to fight for a better future and life.

Costume design

In the film we can see that the clothes are not that modern because the movie is
around the 80´s.
We can see in the movie that the clothes are simple, except when Precious is
daydreaming, because she was imagining she was a celebrity. Also, because Precious
was overweight, so she would wear more comfortable and casual clothes.

Soundtrack

The genre of the music in this movie were predominant like jazz, soul, R&B, hip
hop and pop.
Some of the songs are very well know such as “I Can See in Color” by Mary J.
Blige, “Come in My House” by Queen Latifah” and “System” by Labelle. I guess that the
producer chose songs that were written and played by black artist, to fit the concept of
the movie.

Conclusion

This movie helped me to not judge someone by their appearance and their being
because anyone can be a victim of abuse by their parents or being raped. Also, with
this movie I learned that I should try to talk or interact with someone that is left aside.
I give this movie a 4 out of 5 because I think it´s a very well-produced and written
movie and the actors did a very well job, especially Gabourey and Mo´Nique.
I would recommend this movie to people, mostly adults that think teenagers do
not have problems. But we have such as being bullied, being overweight, being raped,
suffer from abuse, illiteracy or having an early pregnancy.