Precious: Based of the Novel Push by Sapphire (Lee Daniels, 2009)

Precious - You may feel this way after watching her life.

Lee Daniels’ low budget surprise success film is not an easy sell. Even its full title, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, is a mouth full. Trying to persuade mainstream cinema goers to watch a film about an obese, illiterate African American who goes through a series of horrific events involving sexual, physical and emotional abuse and is giving birth to her second child, whose father is her own is not the usual material of Saturday night entertainment.

The film starts on a downer, when Precious gets kicked out of high school. It doesn’t get any better, and never will you be happier so see the faint light at the end of a dark, long tunnel. Using largely unknown young women the film paints a realistic portrayal of deprived characters trying to get by in Harlem. The reason this film escapes the standard clichés of growing up in Harlem, done many times before by the likes of Spike Lee, is the performances. The acting in the film has a real air of documentary realism to it.

The unknown Gabourey Sidibe plays precious with great skill; she is an repressed character, reserved, unconfident and uncharismatic. Accompanying here throughout the film are her peers in school which are all diverse, and well fleshed out. One performance that washes all others away however is done by American comedian Monique, who plays Precious’s mother. Two standout scenes, one where she emotionally torments Precious and one showing an heart-wrenching breakdown are amongst the best displays of acting I have ever seen. Making the audience feel sorry for a mother who has subjected her child to so much abuse is an achievement, and Monique injects so much heartache, bitterness and passion into her performance that by the end of it, it is her that moves you the most. Never likable, but incredibly pathetic by the end, she is one of the most disturbing and interesting characters ever shown in film.

Precious’s passiveness is so frustrating to watch, and introduces the film's greatest strength and flaw. The film is a series of nasty events happening to one person. It is draining, depressing, yet never sentimental. Due to her passiveness Precious feels more like a symbol than a character, a body onto which all the strife and deprivation that occurs to women happens to. Moments of happiness are brief and quickly counteracted with another horrific revelation in her life. It is because of the linear nature of the events that the film feels so scripted. Underneath all the great performances is a story that has been told a thousand times. However, there is something refreshing in seeing a film that has great and stirring monologues, a trait that seems to have died out long ago.

The biggest cliché in the film is Precious’s teacher, who goes to extraordinary lengths to help her, even allowing her to stay in her house. This character has been seen in Dangerous Minds, Couch Cater, Dead Poets Society and so on. The moral core of the story is twofold. Never give up despite the odds that face you, and intervene to enrich someone’s life when needed. Two valid morals, but the film is that determined to push suffering through the screen that all the audience is left with is unrelenting anguish.

One device the film does use in an attempt to find its own voice, are fantasy sequences; when ever things get tough for precious the film cuts to a scene of her fantasising about a rich and famous version of herself. The colour palette goes from its dull city greys to vibrant reds as she imagined escaping her repressed existence. While at first these are a nice touch, and provide much needed light relief, they quickly become predictable.

It’s difficult to work out who this film would appeal too. I must admit, I can see why it has done well, but it just didn’t do enough for me. I left affected by what I had seen, but only due to a stirring ending that I had spend 100 minutes suffering to attain. I have seen films that express the important issue of segregation and derogation of African American’s many times before, and while being a strong piece within that field, it is nothing revolutionary.