Precious (Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’Nique) : Movie Review

There is a particular feeling that regular cinemafiles will recognise; after leaving a movie, as you throw away the popcorn box and jump onto a train home, you are forced to remind yourself that the two hour experience you just had was just a movie – just a two hour piece of (usually) fictional cinematic expression. You feel better in the knowledge that no matter how frightening, disturbing or upsetting said film might have been, you are comforted, like a child, with the notion that it was just that.

Sadly, after leaving Cinema Five, my tried-and-true mantra worked to no avail. I found Precious to be deeply distressing; mainly because the film, based on the novel Push by American poet/author Sapphire, is rooted in true-life events. Sapphire wrote of real atrocities she witnessed as a Harlem literacy teacher, and the effect is startling.

This is no walk in the park: Precious is sixteen-year-old African-American girl. She is obese, impoverished, illiterate and pregnant with her second child…to her biological father, after years of sexual abuse. Her first child, a Down Syndrome girl that she affectionately calls ‘Mongo’, is swanned in by her mother only to paint the picture of a functional but poor family when the social worker comes. The film follows Precious’ tribulations in finding her feet despite years of sexual and psychological abuse.

Precious : Full On!

Gabourey Sidibe gives an astounding debut performance as the young Precious. She projects a genuinely saddening facade as the victim of such unspeakable acts; but we are not meant to “aww” and “poor thing”. Precious does not, despite all mitigating circumstances, sink into neautral self-loathing. She has the odd moment (“Sometimes I wish I were dead”) but who among us can not admit the same; she decides to better her situation and give her kids (the four-year-old Mongo and newborn Abdul) a life better than the one her mother gave her.

Ah, speak of the devil- as many will take literally. It was never going to be an easy role, considering the depth of breadth of the character’s severity (the entire full cinema of patrons gasped loudly when mother Mary throws the just-born Abdul into a chair like a handbag in order to better berate her daughter) and I must give due props to Mo’Nique for her portrayal. Having last seen- and enjoyed- her in the chick-comedy Phat Girlz, I was reticent to see her take on such a heavy, all-in role but she pulled it off gangbusters.

The climactic scene wherein Mary meets with Precious’ social worker (a surprisingly plain-Jane and capable Mariah Carey- take that, haters) and all is revealed about the nature and reasoning behind the years of abuse is especially confronting – I defy you not to weep like a fountain.

Precious’ shift in thought comes when she is found to be quite bright in mathematics, and she is sent to a specialised school in order to better read and write. Precious’ Michelle Pfeiffer enters: Paula Patton as Ms. Blu Rain. Patton takes a keen interest in Precious’ story as she learns more about her disturbing home life, and encourages her to better herself and share her story via her journal- especially when Precious is found to be HIV positive (contracted from her father who had recently passed away from the disease – told you, no walk in the park).

Now, you might see this synopsis and think, “man, God just keeps shitting on this girl- why should I go and see a movie that sounds so depressing?” Well, dear reader, the beauty lies not in her victimization, but her struggle and eventual contentedness. The cinematography is a quarter Hollywood, three-quarters documentary; not unlike a shark tank, we are able to get as close as possible without touching it. Much like Australian drama/black comedy Bad Boy Bubby, the film manages to create something positive and reaffirming out of atrocious circumstances and actions.

WATCH OUT FOR | RATING : 3.5 / 5

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PRECIOUS
In Australian Cinemas 4 February 2010