PRECIOUS (and beyond)...

I had no immediate plans on seeing this movie thinking it yet another feel good, Oprah approved, after school special about "The Black Experience." Fortunately, fate had other plans and I wound up taking some of my clients with developmental disabilities to see it. This flick does not pull any punches, it is as real as real gets, brutally so- much kudos to Lee Daniels for doing it just like that. And while Gabourey Sidibe made it shine, it was Mo'Nique, the all time abusive, ghetto momma from hell who really left me asking if she was acting.

This film is not meant to portray your typical mother/family relationship from the inner city (such a disclaimer should be anything but necessary, but society to this day pays little notice to the countless minions who struggle to survive against daily odds that would lay low any of their most boisterous of critics)- but it does offer some insight into those children who are the walking wounded that inhabit many a classroom in any major urban center you choose. We are just beginning to recognize the effects of PTSD on veterans- and if we are nowhere near proper treatment when it has been officially recognized in adults, what chance do children have who have suffered the same exposure in an environment of daily violence, stress and abuse?

Oh, and my clients- they got it just fine...