Precious
Sunday, May 9, 2010 at 11:55PM 
It has taken me awhile to muster up the desire to see this film, but probably not for the reasons you suspect.
I'm a huge fan of soul-wrenching, spirit-negating, bleak, cheerless brutality. Just ask me about my marriage. Wuuup waaaah.
So, the film's grim subject matter was certainly not the reason for my hesitancy.
Nor was it my ingrained aversion to contemporary African-American cinema - a skittishness beaten into me by years of cinematic abuse heaped upon me by the likes of John Singleton, Mario Van Peebles, Martin Lawrence, Tyler Perry, The Wayans Brothers and the lesser of Spike Lee's "Joints".
Not even my visceral nausea at the mere glimpse of Lenny Kravitz brought about the postponement.
No, the reason it took so long for me to sit down with Lee Daniels' Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire was simply that dumb fucking title and the pretentious insistence on keeping that tacked-on bit of egregious self-promotion attached to the name of the film.
I began thinking of other titular atrocities that might have arisen if this brand of egoism had permeated the culture:
Schindler's List: Based on the Novel Mein Kampf by Adolf.
The Spanish Inquisition: Based on the Novel The Old Testament by Yahweh.
The QVC 'Octagenarian Glamour' Hour: Based on the Novel Cher Forever Fit: The Lifetime Plan for Health, Fitness, and Beauty by Cher.
As you can see, titles tend to get a bit lengthy and obnoxious when these principles are applied. Most annoying, however, is that if you're going to go by the name "Sapphire" have the common courtesy to be a stripper, a porn actress or a drag act.
The film, on the other hand, was an unexpected work of harsh beauty.
It's peculiar how we as Americans react to films like Precious. These types of movies - showing the harsh realities of impoverished youth - are made all the time in Europe to rave reviews. But something like that plays here and everyone with some preconceived agenda comes stumbling out of the ideological cellar to condemn or reject it for one reason or another. There's the blatant racists who use it as irrefutable proof for the condemnation of an entire race of people due to the despicable actions of the few. Others use it to fortify their stance against government entitlements to the poor. Still others from the African-American community want it stifled for its negative portrayal of black people, forgetting that only by shedding light on the subject can real reform and healing take place. The delicate and the incurious cover their eyes to it. The skeptics say the events are too outlandish to be believed. Social workers and psychologists suggest otherwise. But to brush this film off as some sort of overwrought dustbin of urban black stereotypes or to view the events in this film as dismissible rarities is to miss the whole point.
These things do happen to our children. Averting one's eyes to the suffering or writing it off as calculated hyperbole does no good in addressing the issues.
And there is the first rule of audience participation (advocated by Jim Rose): if you cover your eyes you don't get your money's worth.
Let's get the horrors out of the way first:
Precious is a 300+ pound teenager.
She has a four-year-old Down's Syndrome child which she birthed at age twelve.
She is pregnant again with her second child.
Both children are the products of incestual rape by her Father.
Her Mother (Mo'Nique) is physically and emotionally abusive to her. Relentlessly so. She blames Precious for causing her man to leave her.
She is used like an unpaid domestic by her Mother and is often the brunt of her misplaced anger and frustrations.
Precious is illiterate.
The family lives off welfare.
Her Mother chain smokes in front of the television all day and night, only cleaning herself up to meet with the social worker who signs off on her welfare check.
Precious suffers from self-esteem issues regarding the color of her skin. She dreams of dating light-skinned men exclusively and fantasizes herself as a white girl in the mirror.
She dreams of stardom and celebrity despite having no talents, education or prospects.
She has the diet of a lion who has really let himself go.
And she might have caught AIDS from her Dad.
Kind of makes that "poor victimized white Republican male" beef seem a little silly, don't it?
At the heart of this downer of a movie are two phenomenal performances. One from Gabourey Sidibe as Precious (her first ever role) who has an astonishing maturity for an actress so young and inexperienced. Whether director Daniels coached her through it, we shall see further down her career path, if there is one. The scene stealer is Mo'Nique, however. Almost as green as Sidibe in film acting, the stand-up comedienne culled from something deep and dark inside her for this one. Her monstrously petty and damaged character is a terrifying mix of Joan Crawford, De Londa Brice from The Wire and Godzilla. Her hair trigger temper is matched only by her staggering selfishness and absolute lack of any motherly instincts. I had my doubts as to her deservedness for the best supporting actress Oscar but they have all been put to rest. It's a real nerve jangler of a performance. I haven't despised a fictional female character this much since September of '08 when the McCain Studios created Sarah Palin. Fiendish I tell you. Grotesque.
Here's another bombshell. Mariah Carey can act! She has a small role as Precious' case worker. How good was she? I didn't even know it was Mariah Carey until about five minutes into her first scene. Maybe that's how she pulled it off. Perhaps Mariah didn't realize she was Mariah Carey until five minutes in. After that it was just gravy for her.
In the end, Precious is simply an American version of all those dour, suffering, grim character studies that cineastes like me devour from Eastern Europe. The cynical antidotes to the pap and pabulum of the increasingly unserious American cinema. It's nice to see someone from these shores taking on the artistic and social responsibility of such endeavors.
Obviously us white folk don't have the guts.
Reader Comments (3)
Chip,
I'll see this one based on your review...and I'd still like to watch the following movie:
"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, based on book one of the Aubrey/Maturin Series, 'Master and Commander,' and book ten of said series, 'The Far Side of the World.'"
Yeah. I'd like to see them try fitting that Baby on a marquee!
I didn't think I'd want to see this one either but now I'm glad I did. You got a problem with chain smokin' in front of the TV?