Saw Precious, a misery-porn film about a teenaged, fat, black, illiterate girl with a bipolar (or something) mother who clearly only cares about herself and her welfare checks, like a stereotype from the Reagan era. I was very worried that this film would be overly miserable and exploitative. With that setup, how could it not? This was a fairly uplifting film however, but only due to the herculean efforts of one of her teachers.
The film contains a lot of drama which I always enjoy. There's some powerhouse acting from the main character, Precious, and from her mother. I feel it is fairly exploitative, but we're emant to approach this girl with sympathy and I feel the film never overwhelms you with her troubles. Things are introduced singly and leavened with happy times. She goes to an alternative school, but there she gets along with her classmates.
So, this film is basically what you'd expect but not as bad as you might fear. The misery is more or less the point, but we never wallow in it. It leaves us believing that things will get better which, for this film, is a happy ending.
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