Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
I actually put off writing this review for several weeks after seeing it at the Chicago International Film Festival in mid-October because I simply could not bring myself to revisit some of the pain that resides in PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL 'PUSH' BY SAPPHIRE. I didn't want to contemplate a world in which Claireece Precious Jones (newcomer Gabourey Sidibe) goes through a lifetime of every imaginable abuse and comes out the other side hopeful and fortified, but far from fully mended and with a lifetime of struggle still ahead of her. The burden of knowing Precious is to care deeply but fear for the worst, because the worst is all she's known growing up in Harlem with her demon of a mother (Mo'Nique), who never misses an opportunity to abuse and put down her only child.
Precious is 16 years old, with one baby living with her grandmother and another on the way--both come courtesy of Precious' father. When the school faculty gets wind of her second pregnancy, they threaten to kick her out. She opts to transfer to an alternative school, and the seeds are sown for her transformation. Encouraged and fueled by her literacy workshop teacher Ms. Rain (the remarkable Paula Patton), Precious learns to write about her life in journals and short stories in a setting that encourages expression, coping and a bond between students. As much as Precious might sound like a self-help book propped up on the big screen, that couldn't be further from the truth.
Part horror show, part fantasy escape, part gritty urban drama, PRECIOUS manages to blend these seemingly un-blendable elements into the kind of film I simply haven't seen attempted since maybe the late 1970s. Daniels pulls few punches when it comes to making it very clear the types of abuse Precious is enduring--emotional, physical, and sexual (by both parents, although we never see her father). Every sequence set at home caused me to cringe in anticipation at what new awful experience this girl was going to have inflicted upon her. At some of her lowest points, Precious escapes into a fantasy world where she's a glamorous star and object of desire for the most handsome men she can imagine. These sequences reminded me, strangely enough, of WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, during which a boy escapes into a fantasy world to help cope with an unpleasant home life (that kid has nothing on Precious, in terms of messed-up households, let's be clear about that). In perhaps the most heartbreaking scene in the film, Precious looks at herself in a mirror and sees a thin, pretty white girl looking back. That's her ideal, and seeing that person in the mirror makes her smile one of her rare smiles.
This film marks Lee Daniels' second turn as a director, but he made a name for himself as a producer of such masterful works as MONSTER'S BALL and the understandably, but still criminally, overlooked THE WOODSMAN, starring Kevin Bacon as a reformed pedophile. Daniels excels at telling stories about people who simply don't ever get their stories told, and PRECIOUS is no different. But Daniels is also a former casting agent, so he often makes choices in actors that most would never consider, including using musicians in key roles (Sean Combs in MONSTER'S BALL or Mos Def in THE WOODSMAN, for example).
Aside from the astonishing and terrifying use of comedian Mo'Nique in this film, an almost unrecognizable Mariah Carey plays a social worker in charge of Precious' case after she leaves home, while a nicely understated Lenny Kravitz shows up in a couple of scenes as a male nurse Precious meets in the hospital when she delivers her second child. Carey, in particular, surprised the hell out of me, especially in a scene near the end of the film in which she, Precious and the mother sit together to confront some of the terrible abuses committed against Precious. The scene is Mo'Nique's Oscar clip (you think I'm kidding), but I don't think it could ever be played on network television. And it took me completely off guard because at that point in the film, Precious seems safe and more confident; I thought the worst was over. And then Carey asks Precious' mother to talk about when the abuses against Precious began. MoNique's monologue literally sucked the breath from my lungs. It's the worst description of terrible things one person can do to another person that I have ever heard, delivered in a mildly regretful voice, although it's clear that she has no idea the extent of the damage done. If you make it through that scene with losing it, you're a stronger human being than I.
Even with all of these other things to distract us, the focal point of PRECIOUS remains Sidibe, who wears a permanent scowl and looks like she could kill just about anyone with a look, let alone a fist. But the remarkable thing about Sidibe's work is that she cautiously reveals a sweet young woman hiding inside this person practically built out of pain and disappointment. She gives us flashes of the person who could be, who we hope will rise up out of this place. Even by the end of the film, there are so many factors stacked up against Precious. The film is set in 1987, and a certain disease was just coming to light in the world. Fear of anyone with this disease ran rampant, and when Precious finds out that someone in her life has it, her world cracks just a little bit more.
PRECIOUS is an achievement that will take a long time for me to shake. Even if I didn't like what I saw or heard at times, I'm glad someone like Daniels is out there making movies that move me to such a degree and remind me that there are people and things in the world that can still shock me into feeling something about a character and a film as deeply as this film did. This is a story of a survivor that doesn't fall back on big speeches, swelling music, angels and kittens; there's very little about this movie that would qualify as "feel good." But I did feel something after seeing it, and that's a rarity these days.
-- Capone
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