One

Once in awhile I am left speechless. Yes I know what you are thinking, impossible right? Well write this day down because it happened tonight. As I struggled to fall into slumber I decided to watch a movie. As usual nothing good was on, about to abandon hope and take some sleep drugs I stumbled upon the movie Precious. Now I am going to be perfectly honest and upfront when saying I heard about this movie and completely dismissed it do to the fact it really looked boring. First off Mariah Carey is in the movie so I immediately gave the flick no credibility what so ever. Second I felt like a story about a girl raped by her father makes for a sad story one of which I am really never in the mood for. So with that said lets continue. I could honestly go about this entry a few different ways. One, I could go into great detail about the movie and its plot but for anybody that reads this and hasn't seen the movie I wouldn't want to deprive them of actually experiencing it themselves. However I will mention a few plot points to get my point and feelings across.

Words can not describe what this young girl "Clareece 'Precious' Jones" went through. And thats why this movie and story is so amazing. Not only was this girl raped by her father more than once starting at the rip old age of months old, she endures name calling from her peers and family for being overweight, physical and emotional abuse from her welfare sucking mother and of course lack of any education. Now as the story went along many things had crossed my mind such as how race played a big part on how Precious was raised and was told to observe the outside world. Here her mother preaches that the whites hold them back and that education got you no where in life. All this while she sat in a chair waiting for her welfare check. I began to feel angry as I tend to do with stupid people in movies and in life. It's hard for me to feel sorry for people that choose to not do what is necessary for their family. I also began to get angry with Precious. Its so hard to watch someone get abused over and over again and do nothing about it.

As the movie plugged along and went from heart ache to heart ache for this sixteen year old, she finally got the break she needed. Of course it was after she had her second child whose father was her own father ( yes this isn't the back woods of West Virgina )and after she returned home only to have furniture thrown at her by her crazy in the head mother. Her baby thrown to the floor she finally got enough courage to get up and get out. As she was leaving she falls down the stairs baby in hand looks up just in time to see her mother trying to drop a television on her head from two floors up. Finally out. Now during the movie she decides that its best for her to go to a special class that helps prepare her for the GED exam, here she learns to read and write. This class helps her get up on her own two feet and out of harms way. Now I won't go into to much detail because I feel if you are reading this article you should defiantly see the movie and hopefully I am being vague enough so that happens. Plus this blog entry is how it made me feel not a review of the actual movie. This girl makes it through all of that, finally on the up and up and life may actually turn out to be okay. Well bad news comes knocking again. She finds out her father dies and as a last parting gift she finds out he died from aids. She tests positive for HIV. Of course she does why wouldn't she? ( insert sarcasm ) And yet after all the beat downs in life this girl against all odds makes it. And I have to ask why? I spent about an hour debating if I should blog about this and if anyone would read it then I realized no one reads this so who cares. I debated with myself on what drove this character to do what she needed , to put up with all that in her life, taking blow after blow. This family was far from religious which for me made the story even more powerful. God gets a lot of credit in these types of movies but this time no dice. It was quite refreshing to see humans struggle with life's uncertainties, stupid curve balls, bullies that push you down and see someone go through all that and pick themselves up. Believe in themselves. She didn't need a higher power to get off the floor. She needed someone to care for once but most of all she needed to care about herself. Humans have the capability to do so much wrong and hurt in so many ways. There is so much evil in this world that goes unnoticed , but its stories like this that help me believe in humanity and all she did was help herself.


This film had no special effects, no big time director, not even a big lead actor/actress. And yet I challenge you to find a movie that displays the true core of what it means to be a hero and overcoming all the odds. Movies like Avatar may have the 230 million dollar budget but all you get is 230 million dollars worth of fluff. If you want a movie that will leave you feeling like you can do better for yourself this is the one for you. If I had an award for best movie this would win hands down. ( sorry Megan Fox, the fat abused black girl gets my vote )