Precious

This past Sunday Damien and I did our little movie swap. Damien went to the movies first, then I met him at the food court of the Aventura mall to hand off Baz so that I could go see the same film.

We decided on seeing Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire, an intense, sad story of an obese teenage girl from Harlem who deals with lots of abuse and little opportunity to escape it. It is filled with really terrific performances. But, most of all, it is refreshing to see a story about someone other than middle class white boys coming of age. I certainly wouldn't go see this if you were in the mood for some sort of "pick me up", but I do think that it was a well done movie that offers a unique, if not incredibly uncomfortable, perspective of characters and situations we'd rather believe don't exist.

The only thing that really bothered me was the number of small children in the audience. Don't get me wrong, this was a powerful movie with an important, positive message. But, not for 6 or 7 year olds. This is a movie about a young girl who has been repeatedly raped by her father (she has two children with him.) In the film, the mother is physically and emotionally abusive, calling her all sort of horrible names and at one point tries to drop a television on her. I guess it's one thing if you are going to have some pretty hardcore discussions after seeing the movie, but I don't really think that was on the agenda after our Sunday matinee. And honestly, is it even in any way appropriate to have a discussion about incest with a 6 or 7 year old?

So, I do recommend going to see this movie. But, the kids should probably sit this one out.