Precious

Cecil says: We saw this film in one of those community-run cinemas every little market town should have, at The Witham in Barnard Castle, County Durham. The enthusiastic group run this cinema on a laptop, projector and sound system in a big, old hall which is also used for badminton and local theatre (though there's a bit of a dispute brewing over whether to develop the space, thereby losing the wonderful old music hall stage, but gaining cafes, a well-being centre and a modern cinema. Tough call, and not sure which side of the argument I'd be on).

For Saturday night in a small town with no mainstream cinema, we were delighted to have the chance to see a film as edgy and controversial as Precious, and we were joined by about 20 other locals, so not a bad audience compared to other films we've seen since we began this blog. A nice touch too was the interval half way through, which gave us the chance to chat to our neighbour and hear more about how the local cinema group works. If only other towns could follow suit...

But, what of the film? The first thing to say is that Precious is very hard to follow without subtitles. Not being a New Yorker, nor accustomed to the language of the ghetto, I wouldn't have been able to follow much of the dialogue. Though, to be honest, you didn't need to to be able to follow the plot: young, black girl raped by her father has two babies and is abused by her violent mother. The film charts her progress through a special educational programme and her fantasies about what she might become.

It's a tough, violent film, but actually very positive in its message: kind of a black female version of Dead Poets Society or The Browning Version, if you really want a parallel.

Are the characters realistic? Hard to say, not having had much contact thankfully with that kind of life myself. But very believable and horribly convincing. I'll let Bea say more on the content of the film, but I liked it, in spite of its apparently grim subject matter.

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Bea says: I had read a few reviews of Precious over past months, but thought we had missed the boat in terms of seeing it at a cinema, so I was thrilled when we walked past this beautiful old music hall on our first day of holiday and randomly noticed they were showing it that evening. Yes - a film that depicts the central character's very tough life fairly uncompromisingly.

Unlike Cecil, my work does bring me into contact with this kind of life experience on occasion, and in fact the character of Precious reminded me of a girl from my youth who had two babies at a very young age indeed (food for thought); I felt it was pretty realistic. The "inspiring teacher" plot was quite well done - not too sugary, the social workers (one played by a very dressed-down Mariah Carey) portrayed in a sympathetic and real way, as were the family dynamics - the mother's role in the abuse and the grandmother's fear of stepping in.

The ending didn't tidy everything up - Precious still had a long, hard road to climb - but was sufficiently upbeat not to leave the audience reeling from the hard experience of watching parts of this film. Interestingly, a number of the audience were older, even elderly, and I wondered how they had found it, so took the opporunity to chat to a few at the end. "Terrible, but thought-provoking" was their verdict; "after all it does go on, doesn't it"? How many of us, like me, remember a quiet girl who had one or more babies at a very young age?

Noticing that the film is an adaptation of a novel, I thought I might look out for it - having always dismissed Sapphire as chick-lit previously.

My final comment is on the performance of the actess playing Precious; I understand that, like in a Ken Loach film, she had no acting experience and was pulled from the "ghetto" to play the part - she did well.
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