"Precious" is an absolutely awful movie--if you define "awful" in terms of people doing terrible things to other people, or of adults treating children in a disgraceful manner. In terms of writing, casting, directing and acting, it's a brilliant movie, and director Lee Daniels and his cast deserve over-the-top plaudits.
It's also a difficult movie to watch. Child abuse is a painful sight.
Claireece "Precious" Jones is 16 years old, fat to the point of morbid obesity, her eyes squeezed almost shut so she does not have to look at anyone, her face a blank, inured against years of insults. She's practically illiterate, a slave to her mother's drunken whims, a victim of her mother's shameful, painful rants. She has a child with Down syndrome, is pregnant again. The father (of both)? Her own father.
Anything else to make this a horror story beyond all the common definitions?
Geoffrey Fletcher wrote the screenplay from the novel "Push," by Sapphire, and Daniels' casting is amazing.
Gabourey Sidibe, as Precious, is making her film debut, and does it to perfection. She lives in pain and confusion, and she shows it brilliantly. Mo'Nique, known as a large-size comedian and large-size clothing designer, turns to serious drama as Precious' mother, and when she finally is reduced to tears and a lengthy monologue-diatribe-confession, it makes the list of musical theater legends who have starred in "Gypsy," and performed "Rose's Turn," pale by comparison. Paula Patton, who has done a number of minor roles and who is best known as the wife of singer (and Grammy winner) Robin Thicke, is amazing as Blu Rain, Precious' teacher and a person who begins to ease her out of her shell. And I'm not going to go any farther in terms of Mariah Carey. See the movie, watch the credits and be as shocked as I was.
It's an extremely painful movie to watch. Sapphire pulled no punches in the book, and neither do Fletcher or Daniels, who is directing only his second film. His first, "Shadowboxer," (2005) starred Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr., and interestingly, Mo'Nique played a character named Precious. Daniels also served as a producer on "Monster's Ball," with Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry.
Daniels' directorial imagination goes a long way in making the movie a success. On several occasions, and never for long enough to be a distraction, Precious looks into a mirror, or a TV set, to see herself, usually as a perky blonde, always as a star. They provide some wonderful moments of realization of the sort of dream world in which she lives.
Meanwhile, her mother lives in a world of welfare checks.
Precious is the butt of jokes and insults at school, insults and a series of demeaning tasks at home. Her teachers often try to get through to her, even visiting the home, but Mom insults them as easily as she does her daughter and sends them away.
Fletcher's script is tight, and it and the actors hold attention. As difficult as "Precious" is to watch, it's an gripping film that deserves to be seen. To paraphrase the line used by the United Negro College Fund, children are a terrible thing to waste.
Opens today at multiple locations.
-Joe
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