Precious

If you know me at all you know that I try and make time to watch the majority of Academy or Oscar nominees/winners. After picking up some sugar-free syrup and reduced-sugar cake mix (kill me now) I decided to see what the redbox had to offer. I was hoping to get Youth in Revolt but found it was out of stock. Then I stumbled upon Precious and remembered that I have been meaning to give that movie a once-over for quite some time now.

At first I was very bored. I’d look at the clock and only ten minutes had passed when it felt like an hour. A slow start, but definitely something worth getting through. The woman who played Precious’ mom did an amazing job. How she managed to portray a mother with so much passionate hatred toward her daughter is beyond me. While some of her actions were completely uncalled for, some of it did remind me of reality. I don’t mean to sound stereotypical or racist at all, but it is more common to see black women smacking their kids around, even in public. It’s very sad to think there probably are some children out there, and by children I mean anyone under the age of 18, that are so intensely abused by their parents.

Another major topic in the movie has also been popping up often in the past couple of days. In the movie, Precious’ mom hates her because the mom’s boyfriend/Precious’ father sexually abused Precious and gave her 2 children. The mother blamed Precious for “taking her man from her” while the mother did nothing to stop the abuse. Just last night on the show “Rookie Blue” a domestic violence case was dealt with, and in the end the woman who was being beat up blamed herself and basically said if she just behaved and didn’t argue he wouldn’t hurt her again. I hate to be so blatant about this, but women can be so helpless and just plain stupid. Of course men can too – helplessness isn’t discriminatory – but I really just don’t understand how those types of women can’t see that somewhere out there is a better life for them.

And that’s the one thing that Precious did do. She realized she had potential, no matter how many people told her she was worthless and dumb, and she got herself and her two children out of a bad situation. Now that’s a pretty smart move for someone who was apparently so dumb, if you ask me.