Precious: Review By Rama's SCREEN

-- Rama's SCREEN --

PRECIOUS is a sleeper hit that sneaks up and becomes one of the best pictures of the year in my book. With this powerful drama, director Lee Daniels has set himself a milestone for others filmmakers to reach. PRECIOUS is… heartbreaking, raw and masterful. All the performances go straight for the jugular. Newcomer Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe deserves a nomination, even Mo’Nique surprises me. We have ourselves a heavy contender, no pun intended.

I thought the Oscar for Best Actress was all locked in for Brit thesp Carey Mulligan for her outstanding work in An Education but comes along Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe and the race just got heated, we might have a case of a Jennifer Hudson-like story in our hand. The story of PRECIOUS centers around Precious Jones, brilliantly played by Gabourey, and her physical and sexual abusive upbringing. You can really sense the harsh tension between her mom and her the domestic disturbance that goes on in their apartment, motivated by hate and disgust.

Actress Paula Patton who I must say is one of the most gorgeous female to ever walk this earth, plays the teacher with grace and strength. She’s not a psychiatrist but she believes in the powerful healing that comes from writing your story down. By the way, Mariah Carey without make-up on is a nice touch. She’s not a talented actress obviously, but making her appear very unfamiliar is a nice touch.

Director Daniels doesn’t shy away from making the audience uncomfortable, pushing the actors to give us two people whose broken relationship has come to a terminal and fateful point. There are times when we see harrowing flashbacks but Daniels treats them ala Requiem For A Dream with flashes of images that occur in an instant. I enjoy the cinematic set piece of when Precious is sitting in the classroom and the camera works around her, showing all of mankind’s history that she finally gets to learn and understand.

Both Gabourey and Mo’Nique go beyond their comfort zone and whenever they clash, it’s like a lightning storm or a thunder suddenly hits you without a warning. Mo’Nique absolutely floors me, I would never think in a million years that she could play an abusive mother so well with such fearlessness.

The movie doesn’t hide anything, you can tell from the beginning why the mother hates Precious so much but hearing it from her own words, in that final moment at the social work office, is a whole other experience.

Director Daniels has found his ‘Raging Bull’ or ‘American Beauty’, so to speak, with PRECIOUS. He’s good at crafting and choreographing human emotion that would resonate true with the audience while at the same time making sure the story doesn’t get too draining that it becomes hopeless or ambiguous at the end. This is a story of a hard life and can only be approached with nothing less. The light humor in between works effectively, the colorful unique individuals that make up Precious’ alternative classroom with all their humorous personalities to cope with their equally hard backgrounds uplift the spirit and the tone so you won’t have to feel down throughout the entire film.

Things are messed up in Precious’ home, in the people she’s supposed to call family, but in other homes, other families, she gets to learn what it means to be appreciated all over again, to get in touch with her strength, in this case, math and the courage to be a better mom than her own mom could ever hope to be. You’ll be entertained by how Precious learns the odd conversation that her teacher has with her lesbian partner, it’s like hearing some alien language or watching TV family live. Director Daniels who is an openly gay filmmaker incorporates his lifestyle into the story.

This film also personifies people’s dissatisfaction toward who they are. Some of us secretly wish we were someone else and believe life would be better if that was the case. Either that or it’s a psychological defense that we put on just to remain in denial, as a protection from seeing our actual selves in the mirror looking back at us.

Years of being told you’re not good at anything or you’ll never amount to anything, all of a sudden you hear somebody tells you that you’re good at something or that everybody has something that they do well, it’s like hitting a rude awakening. You can either tackle it babysteps or simply tear down the brick wall with a sledge hammer which what I believe PRECIOUS is showing us.

-- Rama's SCREEN --