I was shopping for items to make dinner at the grocery store early this evening and the cashier who checked me out was named, “Precious.” I couldn’t help but wonder if everyone coming through her line had been asking her about her name and if she saw the movie directed by Lee Daniels, Precious: Based on the novel, “Push” by Sapphire.

I would have asked but knew that I’d make myself open to some eye rolling. I wasn’t in the mood. Instead, I made a mental list of what I took away from the movie—my likes and dislikes. I’ll start with my likes:

1. Clareece ‘Precious’ Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) was believable and transcended this role beyond being a young black girl. Even with the significance of her skin color being a central theme to the movie, I could see other young women being able to identify with this character in spite of all of the unspeakable acts committed to her and against her.

2. In the midst of pain and anger Precious could still make me laugh and help me get through the process of accepting that humans are capable of committing the type of savagery the movie portrayed. I’m still trying to process that type of abuse.

3. The cast—Mo’nique, Mariah Carey, Paula Patton, Lenny Kravitz, Sherri Shepard and the supporting characters of classmates were played wonderfully.

4. The topic of incest was finally explored and unapologetically exposed. Surely it will help families, communities, churches, and schools talk about this subject that has been ignored far too long.

My dislikes:

1. How come we never knew why Mary was so frickin’ messed up in the head and heart? This was a woman who became a beast in desperation to be loved. She had to know the voices in her daughter’s head were the same voices she heard speaking to her: “You ugly. You Black. You stupid. Don’t nobody love you. Don’t nobody want you. “

Right? This really bugged me especially when they showed the other mother of the young girl who always tried to get Precious to pay attention to her in the hallways of their building. It was clear that this young girl’s mother was also angry, big and black who was beating her child. Remember her black eye at the end? So as a viewer, I saw another vision of the Black matriarch who was pissed off. I wanted to know why. I was left to my own imagination:

Systemic racism? Reaganomics that created a permanent underclass? The “War on Drugs?” Crack?

I might get it (or not), but what about folks that don’t know anything about those things? What would they come away with? And why was I left with the image of Black baby mama = Welfare Queen?

2. While I loved the roles both Paula Patton and Mariah Carey portrayed I could not help being disappointed that they both were fair skinned women when Precious had such an issue with her dark skin. Basically all the dark -skinned people in the movie were bad. All the fair- skinned people were good. What’s up with that?

3. I hated that Mary, Precious and her entire family called her daughter, “Mongo” short for Mongoloid. I hated it because I could completely see “that type” of family doing something “ignorant”  like that. It got on my nerves and made me laugh, which irritated me even more as I recognized my own sense of “rightness” and judgmental attitude.

What are your thoughts about the movie? Did it challenge you to think about your stereotypes of the black Matriarch or make them more clearly defined? What are your thoughts about Precious’ father who “got away” without persecution in the movie? What were you left feeling about Mary in the end?

I will be thinking about this movie for a long time.