Precious (2009)
A depressing, vivid experience. And you are made to absolutely feel for the title character, who is both victim and a regular person trying to survive and rise above.
It's so sad, I found it frankly hard to watch, even though what I was watching was so obviously well done, in particular the acting. The story is more familiar that you'd want to believe, though the details get slightly extreme and unsettling. But it's how the facts are played out that matters. I mean, an abused child's journey through some harrowing times to an opening of some small hope is as old as Oliver Twist, but to see it in the hands of Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) and her really troubled mom (Mo'Nique) is to get whiplashed and then some.
Director Lee Daniels pulls things together with a combination of cinema-verite style everyday moments (mostly of anger or isolation) and a few editing tricks that help accelerate the plot (speeded up scenes, using a couple of different techniques). And he gets, or allows, his actors to really pour it out, so that whether or not you believe in welfare or whether or not you can stand the horrors of the events in front of you, you end up sympathetic and crying by that last, famous scene, where Precious's mom tells what happened.
As a movie, the end result is what it is. What it isn't is especially original or artful or beautiful. But maybe it didn't want to be or try to be. One exception is during the mental escapes where Precious imagines herself a star while she's being abused, and though they jump out in isolation to the whole, they are a relief, and some sugar in this sour experience. There were times when the sourness, the bitter, mean, angry, violent actions we are forced to watch, are just plain difficult, and though they set the scene, and create empathy for the victim, they also seem to loiter a little for the sake of ugliness. My empathy was in full steam long before the ends of those relentless scenes.
Mo'Nique wins best supporting actress for this role? Absolutely. No surprise there. Amazing stuff.
A depressing, vivid experience. And you are made to absolutely feel for the title character, who is both victim and a regular person trying to survive and rise above.
It's so sad, I found it frankly hard to watch, even though what I was watching was so obviously well done, in particular the acting. The story is more familiar that you'd want to believe, though the details get slightly extreme and unsettling. But it's how the facts are played out that matters. I mean, an abused child's journey through some harrowing times to an opening of some small hope is as old as Oliver Twist, but to see it in the hands of Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) and her really troubled mom (Mo'Nique) is to get whiplashed and then some.
Director Lee Daniels pulls things together with a combination of cinema-verite style everyday moments (mostly of anger or isolation) and a few editing tricks that help accelerate the plot (speeded up scenes, using a couple of different techniques). And he gets, or allows, his actors to really pour it out, so that whether or not you believe in welfare or whether or not you can stand the horrors of the events in front of you, you end up sympathetic and crying by that last, famous scene, where Precious's mom tells what happened.
As a movie, the end result is what it is. What it isn't is especially original or artful or beautiful. But maybe it didn't want to be or try to be. One exception is during the mental escapes where Precious imagines herself a star while she's being abused, and though they jump out in isolation to the whole, they are a relief, and some sugar in this sour experience. There were times when the sourness, the bitter, mean, angry, violent actions we are forced to watch, are just plain difficult, and though they set the scene, and create empathy for the victim, they also seem to loiter a little for the sake of ugliness. My empathy was in full steam long before the ends of those relentless scenes.
Mo'Nique wins best supporting actress for this role? Absolutely. No surprise there. Amazing stuff.