Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire – Review
Make no mistake, everything you’ve heard about Precious or Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire is true. It features some harrowing moments of abuse, and of course, the applauded acting. It’s the latter that makes the abuse so frightening real, grounding it in realism, when lesser actors and a director could camp it up. The drama that saddles on top of Precious could be seen as a Lifetime Channel Movie-of-the-Week, yet director Lee Daniels doesn’t let it, not even for a moment. That’s where the film gets its power. These moments of abuse must make you flinch, and they do so because of Daniels who has this loose and gritty approach, makes it feel like a documentary than a film.
It’s hard to champion a film because of the abuse on display, but for Precious is the film’s anchor that forces us to idol in these troubling waters. That’s where the praised (and justly so) acting comes into play. Mo’Nique is frightening. Maybe she’s entered into the realm of ultimate bad mothers we occasionally see in movies, because she is that scary and that convincing. But even as good as she is in that seemingly now famous triad looking up at Precious on the steps, she’s even better at the end of the film when she haphazardly justifies the sexual and physical abuse on her daughter by herself and her boyfriend. It’s a great scene; I don’t doubt for a minute Mariah Carey’s tears weren’t real, as she plays a Welfare case worker hearing Precious’ story of abuse as Mo’Nique tells it. Now, certainly a performance like Mo’Nique’s can be too powerful and could have forced newcomer Gabourey Sidibe to show her lack of skills, but Sidibe displays the right amount of naturalism for Precious, allowing us to feel her pain genuinely, instead of manipulation.
With all of the great performances in this story of verbal and sexual abuse, it’s hard not to feel crushed under it all. Like I said before, the plot has the makings of what could have been easily a Lifetime Channel movie. Precious is not only obese, illiterate, and abused, she is also a mother of two fathered incestuously. Tough, sick stuff. But through Precious’ dreams that grow more alien as the film goes on-she uses these dreams to temporarily escape the hell-we see her grow into a woman and confront the one thing she could have never confronted without the help of her teacher, Ms. Rain (Paula Patton)-her mother. She chooses not to hide from it any more. The nature of abuse and the understanding of how years of this is key to appreciating her arc.
Don’t misunderstand the race aspect of the film either. Some felt as if the film is demeaning African-Americans and manipulating us into White Guilt. I think any thinking into that should be met with questioning from yourself, and not to the filmmakers. Now the film stumbles a bit when it tries to insert humor. At times the humor is odd, but I understand Daniels approach to break up the constant belittling of her and what that does to us. Precious is a tremendously visual movie of this person that finds her worth, and that is worth championing.
Rating: 
