Precious Addresses Social Stigmas
Precious, a Sundance award winner, opened nationwide Friday November 20. The movie is based on Sapphire's novel Push and stars newcomer Gabourey Sidibe as the movie's namesake. Precious took three awards at the Sundance film festival and is being produced by Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey.
Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe shines in a socially relevant must see role. She plays an obese, illiterate teenager sexually abused by her father and having her second child by him, as well as emotionally and physically abused by her mother and society in general.
In an interview conducted by Oprah with Ms. Sidibe, Oprah relayed a statement made by director Lee Daniels (who also produced Monsters Ball in 2002). Daniels said about Gabby, she is so confident that she is "either in denial about her physicality or from another planet." Her very gracious response to that statement was, "I learned to love myself no matter what my body looked like or what other people thought." It is my great hope, that this was just a poorly worded statement on Mr. Daniels part and not meant to come across as a put down, however, he does go on to say how evolved and special she is, so I will have to leave it open for individual interpretation.
All of that aside, Precious is a movie very much worth seeing. It is a chilling reminder of the kind of inconceivable injustices which still exist in our society. It has a stellar, riveting performance by Ms. Sidibe and a supporting cast which includes, Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, and Paula Patton.
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