I dragged my friend to watch the film Precious under the pretence of it being incredibly important for work purposes.

 ‘Is it light hearted? I can’t bear to watch something dreary at the end of such a horrendous work week – more like month even’.

 I momentarily fought with my conscience, trying rather desperately to figure out a way to mildly bend the truth without lying outright to my already fragile friend.

 ‘Erm, it’s quite uplifting, you know, eventually’.

 She sighed in resignation and replied,

 ‘Sure, why not. I could do with some uplift’.

 And so we trundled into the cinema that evening and sat ourselves down after purchasing an obscene amount of popcorn and chocolates. The film was two minutes into the opening credits and it became quite clear that by the time it decided to get to the uplifting bit I’d possibly have one less friend in life. The glare I was very carefully ignoring subsided once I handed over my popcorn to her.

 ‘Why don’t you just have it all?’

 Compensation can be so sacrificial. But within half an hour of the film she was sharing the popcorn with me once again, forcing maltesers down my throat (though really, force wasn’t necessary) and providing a running commentary on the sad state of the world and Mariah Carey’s hair. This commentary was intermittently disturbed by moments of tearful silence between which she (and many others in the audience) blew their nose. I cleverly had a pack of tissues which I dutifully passed to her as I wiped my own mascara stained cheeks.

 Within two hours I’d sobbed, laughed, almost choked myself when gasping in shock and generally felt a range of emotions which left me completely exhausted by the end of the film but also, strangely satisfied. Exhausted because I felt like I’d just run a marathon of emotions (the only marathon I’d ever be capable of), but the sense of satisfaction that came with it was not only to do with the fact that I’d watched a film I’d think about for a while to come; I was satisfied because within two hours I’d re-learnt the worst kinds of crimes humans are capable of committing and the extraordinary strength of character that stems from these crimes. Satisfied at the way stories can affect you or change your perspective, if only for a little while, satisfied at realising bigger pictures and even bigger lives.