PRECIOUS - who’s insignificant but set to gain stature

Lee Daniels’- ‘Precious’, with Gabourey Sidibe & Mo'Nique and Paula Patton & Mariah Carey, was seen at Cineworld in the Haymarket, London 6/2/10

At a film premier, we see a beautiful young woman, being interviewed on the red carpet - we’re in Harlem, 1987. The woman is Claireece Jones( Gabourey), known as ‘Precious’ and now she arrives in class. She’s 16, going on 30, grossly obese. Almost immediately she has a fight with another student - for her that is normal behaviour but she settles down. As the class finishes she’s told to see the school’s Principal( Nealla Gordon). She’s supportive but we find out Precious has had one pregnancy through being raped by her father and she’s pregnant again.

At home, in a slummy tenement, Precious slaves for her mother( Mo'Nique) who’s good for nothing and is very violent towards her daughter - she dreams of another high profile event - and her mother gives her an earful about the point of her existence - which is that her life is pointless, except having babies and cooking. The Principal tries to visit Precious but tells her anyway that she’s to go to a new school but now there’s a real fight - which Precious treats as normal. But she gets to the new school where her teacher( Paula), infinitely patient and sympathetic, gets Precious to slowly unwind.

Precious’s life is a no-hoper

‘Precious’, 2009, US, 35mm a/r 1.85, 109mins, written by Geoffrey Fletcher & Sapphire, was produced by the director, Gary Magness & Sarah Siegel-Magness with DoP Andrew Dunn - it’s very early on in this flick that you realise that Precious’s life is a no-hoper and the violence she takes is excessive( a tv is thrown at ber) and it’s sometimes hard to realise this is not a fly-on-the-wall doc - the acting throughout is thus of a high order. And the use of inserted fantasy flashes is clever, explanatory and apposite.

This eventually heart warming flick, with a budget of around $10million, released in the US in November and already grossing more than $46million is being distributed in the UK by Icon who have a winner on their hands. You’ll be shocked( and warmed) by this movie.

http://showhype.com/video/youtube_precious_trailer/

http://www.cineworld.co.uk/films/3117?fallback=false&isMobileAgent=false

simon

www.rudereviews.com

My Gran added that this movie has won fistfuls of awards and has 4 nominations for the upcoming BAFTAs, which she hopes to attend! She prays, that not too many people are afflicted like Precious anymore in New York, or even London.