Young women making choices

"An Education" Directed by Lone Scherfig; Screenplay by Nick Hornby; Based on memoir by Lynn Barber
"Precious" Directed by Lee Daniels; Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher; Book by Sapphire
 
Two of this year's most heralded film performances came from relative newcomers. In "Precious" and "An Education" respectively, Gabby Sidibe, 26 and Carey Mulligan, 24 create subtle, authentic performances, the kind that few young actors could hope to match. Both play characters facing divergent paths.Though the characters' specific circumstances differ greatly, both performances reinforce the idea that the choices young adults make, no matter how small, will affect the rest of their lives.

Before seeing "Precious", I read the novel "Push" by Sapphire on which the film is based. I was impressed with the book's rawness and with the author's refusal to water-down the sexual, physical, and emotional abuse endured by Precious. Without giving away major plot points, I'll simply say that Precious has a lot to overcome from her past and plenty to face in her future. Illiterate and pregnant, she enters an alternative school for female teens who have failed within the traditional school system, and she finds camaraderie, confidence, and most importantly, an advocate in teacher Ms. Rain. With new-found strength, Precious decides to leave her abusive mother. However, it's clear her struggles will not end when the reader turns the final page.

Originally, Sapphire was opposed to a film adaptation. She had been courted by other directors and declined their offers. In an interview with Charlie Rose, she said she feared a film version would somehow stereotype the characters in a way that the book does not. I don't know how Sapphire reacted to the film, but I agree that the book has a kind of mystical quality, in the vein of Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, that encourages the reader to feel the characters more than actually see them. In contrast, the film version refuses to shield its viewer from the harsh reality of Precious' life.

Sidibe plays Precious to perfection. Though quiet and often appearing emotionless, Precious is not a frightened rabbit. She mouths off to teachers and pushes around her little girl neighbor. At the same time, she has an elaborate fantasy life which involves her becoming a much-loved celebrity. Her real life, though, is dark, and director Lee Daniels does not shy away from it. The Harlem apartment she shares with her mentally and physically debilitated mother is all dark and shadows. Until she encounters Ms. Rain, the only light in Precious' life is in her fantasies.

"An Education" is about a far less challenged, yet equally interesting, young woman. Jenny is a British high-school student in the 1960s. Like Precious, she has a toughness which dwells beneath a sweet-faced exterior. Though she engages in idle chatter about how she plans to wear all-black at university and slips French phrases into conversation, actor Mulligan allows Jenny to rise above angst and neuroses. Fueled by her hard-working father, she spends the majority of her time studying and attending orchestra rehearsals in the hope of making it to Oxford. These hopes are challenged when Jenny meets David, a much older man who sees in her all that he has left behind.

David woos people. It's how he gets by in life. He even wins over Jenny's father, which seems an unbelievable feat. What is most interesting, though, is that out of all the people David encounters, the one who seems least impressed by him is Jenny. David has money and all the right connections, but he knows little of art, literature, and language, at least not in the way Jenny does. For a time, though, Jenny chooses to ignore his veiled provincialism in order to travel, go to concerts, and simply escape the reality of what she sees as a one-dimensional life.

Though the movie is called "An Education", it's less about Jenny learning hard lessons about men than about her realizing, earlier than most, that her options are far more unique than she was led to believe. Through her brief, yet valuable, affair with David, she discovers she can create her own path. 

What I find most intriguing about Precious and Jenny is that they are so much more complex than they appear, and prove that, though young and vulnerable, they are not easily taken in, and even in the most dire or difficult circumstances, they wish for a life less ordinary.