Quick Reviews (Oscar Edition): An Education, Precious

Of the 10 Oscar Best Picture nominees, I've now seen eight of them. Both are very good, but only one of them cracked my personal top 10 for 2009.

In "An Education," Jenny, a mature 16-year-old British schoolgirl (Carey Mulligan, deserving of her Best Actress nomination), is diligently on a path to attend Oxford when she has a chance meeting with an older man (Peter Sarsgaard). He is charmed, she is smitten, and some subtle manipulation of her parents allows them to begin seeing more of each other. She is intrigued by his life and his friends. She begins to see this man and his swanky, adult lifestyle, as preferable to the immature schoolmate who fancies her, and to her future at Oxford. How everything plays out held my interest, but how it ends was just a little too pat, keeping it from my top 10. My grade: B-plus.

As for "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," the story of Claireece Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) is harrowing. Sexually abused by her father and impregnated by him twice (one baby with Down syndrome, a second baby on the way), physically and emotionally abused by her mother Mary (Mo'Nique), with whom she lives in Harlem (the story takes place in 1987), obese and illiterate, there would seem to be no hope for this girl. She's suspended from school when her second pregnancy is discovered, but the principal manages to get her into an alternative school. Precious begins to gain a support system in her new teacher (Paula Patton), a social worker (Mariah Carey -- completely de-glammed and nearly unrecognizable) and a nurse she meets at the hospital where she's given birth to her second child (Lenny Kravitz). It amazed me that by the end of the movie, although the future of Precious and her children is far from certain, it still felt uplifting. Something that amazed me even more is that, as much as Mary is an absolute monster, I felt sorry for her a little. The movie also made me angry, thinking about the kids who are in terrible situations in real life but don't get help the way Precious does. My grade: A.