Precious...How depressing was that?

I was planning to see the movie Precious, just not as soon as I actually did. It seems I had several hours to kill upon my arrival in the Bay Area for Thanksgiving, yet no one could actually pick me up until close to 8pm. So I decided to hang out in a local Berkeley Movie Theatre and see a movie or two, especially since I had free passes to 3 different movie theatre chains on me. I decided to see the longest film I could find at the time, which was Precious. I knew I was going to be in for a disturbing ride even before I saw the film, but it really was disturbing. Everyone on some level knows that there are horrible acts of abuse going on all around us on a daily basis, but we don't actually get confronted with just how monstrous some of these acts are. As we are not forced to see them face to face, as the film definitely does in very graphics detail. Which made a great deal of the film very hard to watch, especially when the film's main character is being repeatedly abused by her Mother and her Father.


For those of you who are not familiar with the film or the book PUSH, on which it is based. Precious is the story of Clarice Precious Jones, who is routinely verbally, emotionally and physically abused by her Mother. Sometimes the physical abuse is so intense that Precious is rendered unconscious. The fact that the abuse is perpetrated by her Mother, makes it all the more monstrous to behold. As a result of her abusive upbringing, Precious can barely read and write and has the self esteem of a cardboard box. She is also pregnant with her second child from her own biological Father! Her first child whose actual name was Mongoloid, was born with down syndrome as a direct result from being the product of incest.


I am not sure if the film and respective book were actually based on a true story or living person, but by the end of the film you really hope and pray that there is not. As I do not know anytime who could go through what Precious did and not be completely fucked up as a result! Though without spoiling the film or book for others who have not read it, Precious doesn't really escape anything in the end if you think about it ( I will leave it at that as not to spoil things).