Commentary on Precious (contents some spoiler moments)

[Kwesi]

There were alot of things that came up for me while watching
Precious. When I walked out of the theater, I spent the first few
minutes in the parking lot crying - not really knowing what to do with
what I just witnessed. I'm still pretty much in that state of mind and
trying to stiffed through my feelings about the movie. So, my comments
may seem slightly hotchpotch especially since I'm in the middle of re-
reading the book.

I'll start with what I feel stood our the most. The division of race
and skin tone was painfully odivious in this film. It seemed that only
folks who supported Precious were of a lighter hue and her abusers
were darker. During Precious first day at the alternative school, she
walks into the classroom door that literally turns into a tunnel of
light and at the end of the tunnel is Ms. Rain (Paula Patton)fair
skinned, awashed in a halo of light. While scenes with darker folks
were casted in this funky, morbid shadowy light. And when dark skinned
folks weren't painted as monster, they were thrown in as comedy relief
(the recepitionist at the alternative played by Sherri Shepherd). I
mean, even Precious' babies were light-skinned. I was also thrown by
Mary's (Mo'Nique's charater) face getting ligther and lighter
throughout the film. I don't remember this being in the book.

I also felt that the movie missed the mark in showing the progression
of Precious. That was one of the things that I admired about the book.
In the book, we not only saw her progress in her life, but also in her
writing (which I felt should have been a key element in the film and
not simply used as an element to present the opening credits).
However, in the film, I felt that director (Lee Daniels) just pasted
together these sometimes sensational scenes of Precious having all
these things done to her, but not alot of scenes of Precious doing for
herself. I feel that the movie was crafted around the last 20/15
minutes of the film. And it is here that I truly wish I could remember
the scenes in the book, because I feel alot of critial moments have
been omitted from film and alot of character elements have been
severely glanced over - case in point, Ms. Rain's sexuality. In the
scene where Ms. Rain takes Precious into her home, it truly took me a
minute to reconigze that Ms. Rain and Katherine(?) were actually
partners. I mean,if Lee Daniels is willing to take on the gitty
details of Precious' life (not to mention other social issues in his
other films, sex offenders in The Woodman, race in Monster's
Ball),then why casually glimpes over - what I feel - is an important
aspect of a character that plays a key role in the life of the main
character. Why miss the opportunity to have a dialogue about how this
queer woman how she is perceived by Precious and by her students. The
only thing we got was maybe four lines of dialogue from Precious about
"homos" and one scene of Ms. Rain talking to Precious about her
relationship with her parents - too bad it was drowned out by the
background music.

I feel that I will be able have more commentary about this movie when
I done re-reading the book. But, I am interested in the dialogue that
this film has sparked.

[Moya Bailey]

Thanks for sharing!!!! i share many of your thoughts.

Rocka and I just discussed the Halo surrounding Ms. Rain in the movie.

I can't even remember what ms. rain said about her parents.

I think the letter writing b/w precious and ms. rain could have been an opportunity to see her development but we didn't.

did everyone hear about Shaniya Davis? So sad thinking about the real life precious girls and mothers that inform this story.

Moya