Precious (Saturday, November 7, 2009) (160)

It might be unfair of me to say this, but I worried about this movie before it began because I knew that Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry had come in as producers after it was a big hit at Cannes. There's nothing wrong with that, but I worried it would be somewhat saccharine or 'feel-good' in the end. It is actually neither of these things - it is raw and dirty and sweaty and gritty, with lots of bad language, some graphic rape and some light nudity. I'm rather shocked that Winfrey, especially, would connect herself to such a dark film - but give her credit for doing so. This is not a perfect movie, but it is admirable for its frankness and contains some striking memorable moments.

This film opens with the reveal that Precious (played by Gabby Sidibe), a 16 year-old obese girl living in Harlem in the late 1980s, is pregnant with her second child. She lives with her abusive mother (played by Mo'Nique) who sits in front of the television all day not working and collecting welfare checks. Through the film, we see Precious get enrolled in a school for remedial education and begin to confront her painful history, including rape, incest, HIV and a massive amount of horrifying abuse.

As we see all of the shocking reality that Precious has to deal with, we also see her fantasy life: She is a celebrity who marries a submissive light-skinned man who loves her. The paparazzi follow her, snapping pictures of her in elegant ball gowns - a stark contrast from her gritty, painful, dirty day-to-day life. She is simple, engaging, and funny in voice overs telling us about her feelings at certain times. At one point, when she visits her teacher's house, she says that 'they speak like people on a TV channel I don't watch' (a great line!).

But the pain of her life is absolutely stunning. Basically every bad thing you could imagine might happen to a person happens to her. (If this wasn't based on the book author's autobiography, I would say it was a bit too much to dump on a single character.) Potted plants and television sets are thrown at her (dropped on) head, she is raped by family members, she is cursed at and yelled at every night.

Director Lee Daniels pulls absolutely no punches in telling his story. At one point, in a flashback of Precious being raped (for the second time in her life), we see the family member assailant's fat, sweaty torso, and then a quick cut to a hand going into a tub if Vaseline, and then him sticking his hand down his undone pants. It is one of the most amazing and frightening things I've seen in film in a long time - and yet almost abstract in it's continuity.

But Daniels makes some decisions that equally ring totally bogus and insincere. As we see Precious in her English class, the camera spins around her as images of 20th Century history flash on the walls and a clock spins *showing the passage of time* (ugh - it's beyond banal). The pacing of the film and the narrative of the scrip is rather inconsistent, so it is unclear how fast Precious is learning to read and write. (I am told this is executed well in the book, where much of the story is written in her developing voice, with misspellings and dialect typos; Sadly, this does not translate to the screen.)

I think the movie loses some power when after about the second act, it is unclear what is left to cover. The movie feels rather resolved and it is not clear that there is another 35 minutes left.

What we do get, though, is one of the most powerful scenes in recent years, where the mother details the origins and history of Precious' sexual abuse. This is Mo'Nique's Oscar entry - and it is powerful, fabulous and heartbreaking. She does a magnificent job delivering the graphic, sickening material with an almost-self-righteous attitude. My only problem here is that this scene is needed earlier in the film - and seems like just another heap of shit to throw onto Precious, not to mention that it's largely material that we already know about. I mean, the scene itself is beautiful - but it works better as a stand-alone short film, rather than a moment at the end of a longer work.

Gabby Sidibe is really wonderful in the lead role, moving well between the timid, abused and shy girl who has had mountains of garbage loaded on her back and the elegant, powerful woman of her fantasies. I believe she is a non-actor - that this is her first professional role - and she deserves a ton of credit for such a wonderful performance. Mariah Carey does a good job in a small role of the welfare councilor - cast as much for the money she would bring the film on the back end as for her talent in the part itself. Lenny Kravitz has a momentary cameo as a nurse in the hospital - which he's fine in, though the character is totally unnecessary.

This is a film that I fear will get an insane amount of attention as being the "best movie of the year" and an "Oscar hopeful". It does not deserve this praise, but it is a very interesting, shocking picture with at least one brilliant performance (Mo'Nique), another very good one (Gabby Sidibe), as well as some very visceral and memorable moments. It is not a great film, but a good film. It's biggest problem is the script and some directorial decisions that don't translate well for an audience unfamiliar with the book.

Stars: 2 of 4