Review of Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire (2009) by Ben F — 02 Mar 2011

So because of all the reviews that I heard, I thought that this movie was going to be phenomenal. When I finished "Precious", I said to myself, "okay it was good....but what was everyone talking about when they said it was amazing?" I mean...it was a good view, and yeah Mo'Nique was fantastic, but other than that...I don't see any reason as to why this film was given as much praise as it was. Maybe it's just me, but that's how I feel.

So everyone already knows the plot for the movie. The film focuses around this illiterate teen who's struggling to pretty much stay alive, getting around her father who rapes her and her mother who beats her. Anyway, at some point she decides that somehow she wants to make something for herself, and she tries to learn. She has a crush on her teacher...wait I don't think that really matters. Anyway...it's one of those "You got nothing...and try to make something" movies.

The film had this weird editing style when it came to some scenes regarding rape and abuse. And I know it's going to sound really messed up when I say this, but for the domestic violence scenes, I think that they just should have shown them instead of cropping them up and throwing flashes all over the place. That way it would have been ten times more disturbing. Anyway...it felt really weird to me for some reason.

The only reason I actually liked this movie was Mo'Nique. I thought that she was fantastic. I actually think she was the only one who actually gave a good performance, but again that's just my opinion. Anyway..if she wasn't in the film, than I think it would have bombed. But she was phenomenal...and I think she was the reason why this movie got all the hype that it did.

I don't know. It was a good movie yeah...but only for that reason. Everything else just seemed to weird for me...and I didn't feel a strong connection to the characters towards the end of the film. I didn't think there was a strong sense of correlation between audience and character, and though I might be one of the few who actually cares about this, it's truly noticeable in a movie when it does happen and when it doesn't. That being said, this movie can go either way. I thought it was a good view, but some people might think it was horrible, and some might think it was amazing. You decide.