Edge of Darkness and Precious

Over the last week, I saw two films - Edge of Darkness and Precious. Precious is generally listed as 'Precious - Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire', but I'm not going to type that out every time so let's just pretend I did.

For the sake of comparison, Edge of Darkness had a budget of $87,000,000, and has made $21,029,253 at the box office since opening. Now, I only just got up, so correct me if I'm wrong, but that pretty much means it didn't open. Precious, on the other hand, had a budget of $10,000,000 and has since grossed $46,896,564 in revenue. According to IMDB, it holds the record for averaging $100,000 per screen in fewer than 50 US cinemas.

Edge of Darkness, which stars Mel Gibson, opened in US and UK cinemas on the 29th of January. Precious, which had no advertising budget and starred the unknown Gabourey Sidibe in the titular role, premièred at Sundance and Cannes in 2009, after which Oprah Winfrey's production company began to promote it. It's currently on limited release in cinemas throughout the UK.

I saw Edge of Darkness because...well, it was a Sunday afternoon in Southampton, and at the time we got there, it was that or Astroboy. I had pretty much no idea of what it would be about, and, to be honest, didn't really care.

For those who do care, it's about a policeman whose daughter is killed. His coworkers assume that he must have been the target. He starts searching for whosoever might have wanted to murder him. Trailer below.



I saw Precious because I was in the mood for a film. I checked out what was on at Birmingham Broad Street, read a few descriptions, and remembered that we'd seen the trailer for Precious before Edge of Darkness. I also remembered that I thought it seemed interesting, so I decided to go see it.

Precious is the story of an obese sixteen-year-old, pregnant by her father for the second time, and living with her abusive, manipulative mother. Again, trailer below.



The two are very different films. Edge of Darkness is an action film, based on an old British TV series. Precious is more of a drama film, and was based on a novel. You can see the difference in the production budgets, too. Edge of Darkness is very slick, very well put together, while certain scenes in Precious seem to have been filmed on a handheld.

The important difference, however, is in how much one cared about the characters. You know the way you flinch when something horrible happens to a character in a film? You clutch your throat if theirs is slit, or you place a hand on yourself wherever the bullet hit them. That happens because you're empathizing with and caring about the character - people don't usually get that reaction from watching a plate of meat being sliced. So, it probably says quite a lot that I giggled at most of the violence in Edge of Darkness. It's not that it looked bad - it was, I suppose, technically rather gory and well-orchestrated. I just really couldn't bring myself to care.

Several of the actors have wandering accents in this film, too. Plus, the relationship between Gibson's character (*googles*) Thomas Craven and his daughter (I'm not even going to bother to look up her name, actress or character) looked creepy and incestuous. To be quite fair, so did the one in Precious, but, on the other hand, that one was supposed to be creepy and incestuous. I think here, they may have been going for caring. It didn't work. It was creepy and incestuous. I got hysterics at the bit where he was holding his daughter's body and breathing heavily. Creepy and incestuous.

While watching Precious, on the other hand, I flinched at every tiny blow. I wanted to take all the characters home with me, and take care of them. Or beg someone to impregnate me, so I could have my own child, to raise in a loving and safe environment, and never ever expose them to anything so horrible. And that's not like me at all.

Although Precious did have some famous actresses in it, that didn't distract me at all - unlike in Up in the Air, Sherlock Holmes and 17 Again, which got very odd at some points - Chandler Bing turns into Zac Efron and tries to seduce the Hooters doctor from Big Daddy while fending off Dawn from Buffy?

Anyway, yes. With Precious, I actually cared about the characters, instead of just coming up with triva about the actors. I didn't even recognise Mariah Carey, in her role. I had to double check it was the same Mariah Carey, then find a youtube clip of her scenes to compare with her pictures.

One criticism levelled at the original book was that it seemed unrealistic for one character to face so much hardship. I haven't read it, but although Precious' life does seem to keep hitting her with the trauma stick, I didn't find it unrealistic at all. Probably because it all kind of went together - if her mother hadn't also been abusive, her father's abuse wouldn't have gone on for so long, and so on. It's not like a series of unrelated unfortunate events.

In short; Precious made me cry. Edge of Darkness made me laugh. To be quite fair, I'm not a huge fan of action films, so maybe someone who is wouldn't find it quite so hilarious. However, I'm not the only one who prefers Precious - the average ratings on review sites such as Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes and even IMDB is around 7-8 out of 10 for Precious and 5 out of 10 for Edge of Darkness.

Edge of Darkness has yet to be nominated for or to win any awards. Precious, on the other hand, has been nomated for six Academy Awards, four BAFTAs, ten Black Reels, five Critics Choice Awards, two Chicago Film Critics Awards, one Costume Designers Guild Awards, one Directors Guild of America Award, one GLAAD Media Award, two Golden Globes, one Golden Trailer, ten Image Awards, five Independent Spirit Awards, one ALFS, two Online Film Critic Society Awards, one PGA, three Satellite Awards, two Screen Actor's Guild Awards, one Bronze Horse from the Stockholm Film Festival, five WAFCA award, and one WGA. That makes sixty-four.

Precious has also won two BSFC Awards, one Critics Choice Award, one Capri Award, one CFCA Award, one Chicago International Film Festival Award, two from the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, one from the Deauville Film Festival, two from the Florida Film Critics Circle, one Golden Globe, one from the Hawaii International Film Festival, one from the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, one from the Las Vegas Film Critics Association, one NBR Award, one NSFC Award, one PGA Award, one from the Palm Springs International Film Festival, two from the Phoenix Film Critic Society, one from the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, two from the San Sebastián International Film Festival, one from the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, two Satellite Awards, two Special Achievement Awards, one Screen Actors Guild Award, one SEFCA Award, one from the St Louis Film Festival, two from the Stockholm Film Festival, three from the Sundance Film Festival, one from the Toronto International Film Festival, and two WAFCA Awards. That makes forty.

Have a look here if you don't believe me.

Again, to be completely fair, remember that Precious was actually released in 2009, so Edge of Darkness still has a chance in the 2010 awards.

Also remember that those awards won't make you personally more or less likely to enjoy either film. I just really like it when the world shares my opinion.