"I write so that I know what I think" like the person who said this, I recently have been trying to process all that was the film, Precious. If I write it down, it may be less ethereal.
Spoiler alert for those who have no idea what the film is about.
Monique said at the Golden Globes that children who are abused need to speak up, which, of course, is a good idea, but I didn't see that as the main theme of the film.
Our willingness to judge others and assume certain things about a person based on superficial truths ,we think we know, seems to be the central idea. At least it was for me.
Who hasn't heard someone complain that a certain woman only has more children because it will increase her welfare money?
If I met Precious, with her children, I might feel irritated with her for her poor choices. Maybe I would think that she is lazy.
The truth would be that Precious did not make any choices, poor or otherwise, and she worked hard to stay alive in a hostile environment. She could never be considered lazy.
The film is raw; it only gets preachy once, and that is the social worker, yet is does have humor. The humor of young women who despite horrible circumstances, converts situations into giggles. As a public school teacher, these girls in class were familiar to me. Their silliness gave us little laughs--sometimes inappropriate laughs. Precious' fantasy world is a survival tool.
Could I ever cope with a life like hers? How can a child, who lives in constant, stressful uncertainty, think clearly enough to learn in school? She can't.
Precious is a film that revisits your thoughts and reveals more each time. Mary is someone we hate, but we know how she got this way. Marys will continue to be, and hopefully there are girls like Precious who decide to stop that cycle.
She didn't want her children to be raised in that environment
Precious finally meets people who are on her side which gives her the strength to start over.
After seeing the film, I was reminded of the power of kindness. Kindness begets kindness.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment