http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929632/

In many ways Precious is quite an achievement. Gabourey Sidibe was fantastic as precious. Her performance is the best debut this year next to Sharlto copley. The story is one of the most depressing I have seen in a while. The film shows so many terrible things happening to Precious that I almost became numb to it. Lets get the bad stuff out of the way first. Lee Daniels is not a good director. The camera movements in this film are very random. He does close ups for no apparent reason, shaky cam, then back to still and a few talking pictures for the hell of it. It seems like he is trying to develop his own unique look but so far has failed. The talking pictures scene especially was unneeded. We don't have to have a film tell us what we already know, or give us random infomation that is not important. There are also random fantasy scenes when Precious thinks about what she wants to be or what she would rather be doing. I understand why they were put in, but they appear to be filler rather than important scenes. They take up way too much time and end up being cheesy and cliche rather than emotional. This isn't so bad, but Lenny Kravitz was a very odd choice. He plays a doctor who is only in a few scenes. his character isn't pointless, well it borders on it, but having Lenny Kravitz play a doctor seems like a strange casting choice. He isn't bad, but he isn't good either and his part could have been cut without losing much. Now lets get to the good stuff, the delicious sauce that covers an average steak of a film. Mo'nique was fantastic. I can't remember the last time I felt so repulsed yet fascinated by a film character.

She has a great ability to appear kind and sweet, then turn and do something insane the next. Her character does awful things, and her reason for doing them is disturbing but it brings us closer to the film's world and her twisted mind. Mariah Carey is in the film too, and she is tolerable but nothing special. This was a tough one to rate. On one hand the acting is mostly fantastic, but on the other the story isn't. It is in no way bad but you can pretty much predict what will happen. Once again though the directing does drag the film down a bit. There is a rape scene where it shows precious being raped by her dad, and then the film cuts to an egg frying. Golly I wonder what that means. Things like that combined with the other poor amateur directing I mentioned make me wish the film was directed by someone who knew how to use a camera. What I did love about this film is how it doesn't critisize anyone. It just shows what they do and why. You may not like what the characters do, but their lives are shown in a non biased way that I liked. The classroom scenes where Precious is shown fitting in somewhere for the first time in her life are mostly pretty delightful and heartwarming. The people in her class may be a bit annoying at times, but seeing her interact with people is a joy. Overall I would recommend this film despite it's bad direction. It may not change your life like the critics say it will, but it is still worth watching. I hope Gabourey sidibe gets some awards for this, she is magical in this film. The beauty of her personality and how she struggles are the best part of the film. It is not Oscar bait as some have said, and while it is quite brutal and depressing at times it is not one to ignore.

Overall I give it an 7 out of 10.