Precious and An Education, two tales of 16 year old girls growing up, are also wonderfully thought provoking films on the subject of female agency and the role of education.Precious, the more infamous of the two, is about an obese black girl (Gabourey Sidibe) growing up in Harlem in the 1980's. Her mother, played by Mo'nique, abuses her on a regular basis, treating her like a indentured servant who needs to cook to earn her keep. We immediately learn that Precious has also been consistently abused by her father, with whom she is now pregnant for the second time. After getting kicked out of her public middle school, where she is still a student at the age of 16, she enrolls in an alternative school and lands in the caring hands of Ms. Blu Rain. What teeters on the brink of cliche (teacher saves student; student transcends her situation with literacy) is saved by the constant barrage of bleakness in Precious' life. We learn that her oldest daughter has Down's Syndrome, and witness another terrible fight between Precious and her mother.
Most intriguing are Precious's seamlessly integrated fantasy scenes. While her mother force-feeds her while watching an old movie, Precious projects herself into the film and imagines a more caring dialogue between the two women. These fantasies are the only space where Precious is in charge of her life. Her mother is no more free. We learn that the reason she hates Precious is because her boyfriend (Precious's father) showed more affection for Precious than her mother from the moment she was born. Precious shows the limited agency of poor black women since both women's lives are controlled by the father, who is barely even in the film. The only characters who have some agency are the educated teacher, Ms. Rain, and the social worker played by Mariah Carey.
An Education is also bas
ed on a sordid, if more palatable, premise. Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is studying for her O levels on her way to Oxford when she meets David Goldman (Peter Sarsgaard), an older man. David quickly impresses her and her parents with his sophisticated pursuits (art, classical music, fancy restaurants, traveling), and starts to date Jenny for real. Though Jenny learns of David's sketchy real estate business, she still enjoys the worldly education he offers her via trips to Oxford, Paris, and the auction house. Soon, Jenny is faced with a critical decision: David or Oxford.This decision is made more complicated as Jenny questions the point of going to Oxford. When she broaches the idea of getting married to her father (Alfred Molina), he tells her she'll be taken care of and doesn't "need" an education anymore. This is 1961after all, and even educated women seemed to have few options. Jenny's one teacher who went to Cambridge seems to be a lonely spinster who grades horrible essays all day long. Here's where the story gets interesting as the viewer ponders how women can gain agency through education.
Though Precious and An Education are set 26 years apart in different countries and across different socio-economic lines, they send important messages about education. Book learning might not be enough, but it is a start.