Precious (Mo’Nique, Mariah Carey) : Movie Review
January 26, 2010 by Tony Montana
Filed under Movie Reviews, Movies
Think of the worst possible life you could have. Then imagine how happy you’ll be when the lights come back on in the cinema and you realise you aren’t a massively overweight teenage black girl who’s had two children from her rapist, abusive, AIDS-infected father.
But wait, you’ll be even happier than that, because you also haven’t been living on welfare with your even more abusive mother throwing the TV set at you when she isn’t asking you to sexually service her, your first child didn’t have down syndrome and isn’t called “Mongo”, you didn’t have to steal fried chicken from the local chicken shack to eat, and you didn’t have these constant pathetic fantasies of fame and fortune that are so cheesy they’re almost laughable.
Man, you’ll be dancing in the aisles once Precious is over.
Precious : Full On!
WHAT’S THE BUZZ
Despite having the kind of plot just about everyone got sick of back when Dangerous Minds was “cool” (teenager heading downhill fast is rescued by kindly teacher and set on the path to a good life) Precious packs a massive punch simply by taking all the usual troubled teen clichés and pushing them about as far as they’ll go.
Even with prior warning, some of the scenes in Precious are jaw-dropping.
They’re made even more appalling thanks to a range of first-rate performances, especially from Gabourey Sidibe as Precious herself and comedian Mo’Nique (in her Golden Globe winning role) as her mother Mary. Mary is a walking nightmare, the biggest monster you’ll see on screens this year and the kind of character that’ll haunt your nightmares worse than Freddy Kruger in A Nightmare On Elm Street.
Some scenes feel like they belong in one of those limp after-school specials about troubled teens, but time and again Precious finds a way to slip in some nasty detail or pathetic moment to keep you hoping like hell nothing like this ever happens to anyone you’ve ever known.
So yeah, not exactly a fun viewing experience – but at least you won’t forget it any time soon.
WATCH OUT FOR
Mary’s final self-justifying monologue to an stunned social worker (Mariah Carey – who’s actually really good). Just when you though you’d made it through the worst this film had to offer, this is a final kick in the guts that’ll leave you reeling.
WATCH OUT FOR | RATING : 4 / 5
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