Last night I watched the acclaimed movie, "Precious" starring Gabourey Sidibe who was able to play a glamour girl role as well as the unappealing character ironically named "Precious." Precious was not the value placed on her, however, by her abusive mother played by the actress, Mo'Nique nor by her father, her mother's boyfriend.
Mariah Carey also plays a role in this movie, not a glamour role but that of a social worker in a welfare office. I have been annoyed for years that social workers are almost always portrayed as cold, heartless control freaks and it was refreshing to see a more realistic picture, right down to the little make-up that the Director insisted Mariah Carey use to make her look more natural.
The glamorous fantasies of Precious are embedded creatively in scenes of abuse that needed to be brief because they were so abhorrent. The abuse, both sexual and physical, is not far-fetched; I often heard similar tales as a clinical therapist. Nor are the fantasies which are known as a dissociative process so the abused can survive the attacks without a mental break.
As unappealing as the main character looks, she is likeable because one senses that she has "will." She survives by going right back into her responsibilities and demands of her homelife. Her and her child's survival become paramount when she survives a fall down the stairs pushed by her mother. Then I found myself gasping as the mother throws a television set after her and I was sure the baby Precious was carrying in her arms had been struck and killed. Precious picks herself up and with her baby in a bloody blanket leaves her mother's household and the viewer knows she has the will to leave it forever.
Precious now has resources. She is learning at an alternative school and is befriended by all the other students who are misfits in their own right. Her welfare worker is helping her live independently with both her children, the older of the two with Downs Syndrome. She tells her mother that she will not return because she is making good grades, reading at the 8th grade level, and next year will go to high school, "and then college." As she walks down the street in the last scene, carrying both babies, I could only think of what a "push" it was going to take, but that she had the will to make it. Good movie! Mimi
