Great podcast! My first (found you from SceneUnseen)…and I'm commenting so late, but it's all positive.
Interesting that with New Moon, you spent a long time discussing the differences/similarities between the book and the film, but that didn't come up with Precious. As you know, Precious is based on the book Push by Sapphire. In the book, Sapphire tosses all this horror at Precious — and in fact, the book details out the horrors much more than the film does. So Lee Daniels does tone it down. (Hey, when I read the book: I was really mad at Sapphire when Precious ends up with HIV. I couldn't believe that she did that to Precious, who had already suffered so much.)
But I'm not writing to excuse the filmmakers or imply that a movie should be a slave to a book. (Which I kinda felt like Jen Y did with New Moon.) I really liked the film, but agree with most of the comments about how the film could have been improved. Having read the book, I was glad to see the movie cut out some of the things that happen to Precious, but after hearing all of your comments, I agree that removing even more might have led to a better, more believable plot.
One thing from the book that I missed was the discussion of skin color. Although Precious' feelings about this are touched on in the movie, I felt that more could have been done. And perhaps if this subject had been part of the dialogue, the filmmakers might have considered the lighter skin color of several of the “good guys” — this has been brought up among many commentators and the general African American viewing public as well.
Anyway, loved it, can't wait to hear more!
