Director Lee Daniels’ “Precious” based on the novel Push by Sapphire has been generating a lot of buzz since it won the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
The film follows the journey of Claireece ”Precious” Jones(Gabourey Sidibe), an overweight sixteen-year-old African-
American living in Harlem in 1987. She lives in a life no one would desire. She’s pregnant with the second time by her absentee father. Her home life is very turbulent because she has to wait on her mother(Mo’Nique) who smokes like a chimney and watches television all day. Precious is abused emotionally and physically by her mother, who at one point makes Precious eat macaroni and fried pig’s feet because she is unsatisfied with the meal.
Precious does well in math at her school, but is expelled because she is pregnant. Her principal provides an answer to Precious’ huge secret: she cannot read or write. Precious begins to attend an alternative school to take classes to earn her GED. Along the way, Precious meets a teacher, Ms. Rain, who helps the extraordinary teenager find her inner voice and strength.
I first saw previews for this film while seeing “Bright Star“, a film about John Keats’ life. The trailer struck me and stuck with me after the opening monologue by Precious. She says, “My name is Claireece Precious Jones. I want to be on the cover of a magazine. I wish I had a light-skinned boyfriend with nice hair. But first I want to be in one of those BET videos.” Two seconds after her voice, her mother enters the frame with a frying pan in hand slamming it into the wall. I knew I had to see the film.
The plot line seems to be like thousands of other movies - a girl has a problem and overcomes the problem, whatever it is. In the film, Precious doesn’t just have one problem. She has many that accumulates into the travesty that is her life. “Precious” is an emotionally draining movie that has a one-two punch in the gut one after the other. By emotionally, I don’t mean a few tears. It’s several emotions running through your head: pity, guilt, sadness, anger and euphoria. The film is very difficult to watch, but it is very eye-opening.
During one intense scene, I felt sick to my stomach. Precious looked to be a little girl, may three or four. It shows her father taking off his belt and raping Precious. Even though this scene was particularly brutal, it was relieved by Precious fading into one of her fantasies of being famous with her light-skinned boyfriend. The director provided comedic relief in several difficult scenes. In one scene, one of Precious’ classmates taunt her for a crush on Nurse John, the first male nurse any of them have seen.
What really makes the film come alive is the brilliant actors and their attention to detail. No’Nique plays her role frightening well between being an abusive mother and putting on airs to receive welfare checks. Gabourey Sidibe brings raw honesty and an emotional connection to Precious that you can’t help but root for her. Mariah Carey is barely recognizable as she plays a rundown social worker.
This film is amazing and is more “precious” than any nomination or Oscar buzz.
