Precious (2009)

Directed by: Lee Daniels | 104 minutes | drama | Actors: Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, Sherri Shepherd, Nealla Gordon, Stephanie Andujar, Amina Robinson, Chyna Layne, Xosha Roquemore, Angelic Zambrana, Nia Fraser, Melissa Ali, Ephraim Benton Matthew Bralow, Camilla, Aryn Cole, Ryan Curtis, Aunt Dot, Karen Giordano, Barret Helms, Grace Hightower, Maya Hinnant, Debbie Lee Jones, Christopher Joseph, Terria Joseph, Jeff Joslin, Toneda Laiwan, Daniela Lavender, Deborah Lohse, Alex Manette, Elizabeth Marley, Rochelle McNaughton, Bridget Moloney, Mugga, Kola Ogundiran, Tristan Laurence Perez, Catherine Pierce, Lorna Pruce, Shortee Red, Kimberly Russell, Sapphire, Abigail Savage, Nicole Sellars, Ean Sheehy, Rose Sias, Esley Tate, Erica Watson, DeWanda Wise, Victor Woodley, Yvonne Woods

Few people will want to trade with Claireece ‘Precious’ Jones (Gabourey Sidibe). She is sixteen years old, weighs 150 kilos and grows up in one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York. She can barely read or write and is constantly bullied at school. Still, she would rather be in school than at home with her mother Mary (Mo’Nique). Because it’s a real hell in the tiny, filthy cage in which she lives. Her mother berates her, treats her like a slave and abuses her. Precious doesn’t exactly know which is worse, the physical or the mental abuse. Four years ago she had a baby, a girl with Down syndrome she calls Mongo. The child was fathered by her father, who regularly raped her. Her mother does nothing. Instead of kicking her husband out the door and standing up for her child, she does nothing. She even blames Precious, claiming she stole her husband from her. Now Precious is pregnant again, and again her drug-addicted father is the father of the child. However, this pregnancy brings new hope. Because although it is the reason why Precious is expelled from school, a new, unique opportunity presents itself. An opportunity that Precious grabs with both hands. Finally there is light at the end of a pitch dark tunnel.

Lee Daniels made a name for himself as a producer of heavy-themed films. ‘Monster’s Ball’ was about racism and interracial love affairs, ‘The Woodsman’ (2004) was about pedophilia. In his directorial debut ‘Shadowboxer’ (2005), a woman and her stepson have an almost Oedipal relationship. It seems as if for ‘Precious’ (2009) – after the debut novel by artist/poet Sapphire from 1996 – he has put all that misery together, because poor Precious saves little. Especially in the first 45 minutes of the film there is not a glimmer of hope to be found. You would almost think that we are dealing with a European film here, everything is portrayed so raw realistically. But nothing is less true. In fact, none other than the queen of positivism Oprah Winfrey committed himself to this film as a producer. Hope soon presents itself, in the form of the patient and devoted teacher Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), who tries to help underprivileged young girls at the alternative school ‘Each One, Teach One’. Although she initially keeps quiet – Precious is not used to speaking in front of a group and is ashamed of herself and her background – the girl slowly blossoms. Ms. Rain could have easily become a soft, “goat wool sock teacher,” but Patton portrays her as a powerful woman on a mission. Slowly but surely the ball starts to roll for Precious. She learns to read and write, gains self-confidence and finally has the feeling of representing something in the world. Her mother watches it with sorrow. The threat of fate and a relapse into misery is never far away. A final, fierce confrontation is inevitable…

‘Precious’ stands out for its particularly convincing acting. Newcomer Gabby Sidibe is overwhelming in the title role. She is so believable that you can almost believe that she has experienced what Precious has to endure. It is beautiful to see how the enormously obese girl in those too-tight clothes, who initially shuffles along the gray New York streets with her furrowed, angry head to the ground, at a certain moment. With Sidibe, who is seen as a candidate for an Oscar, it all seems very natural. Mariah Carey is also completely ‘au naturel’ in this film. The singer, normally dressed in glitter and miniskirts, is stripped of all glamor here and surprisingly plays the social worker Ms. Weiss, who stands up for the interests of Precious. As mentioned, Paula Patton is just as good. She has some beautiful scenes with Sidibe, including the most touching of them all, where Precious, crying, explains to her that that so-called love where Ms. Rain has brought her nothing but misery. The acting in breadth is strong. The best of them all is Mo’Nique. The comedienne stars as the chain-smoking, sleazy and arch-lazy Mary, who is impossibly attached to her daughter. She likes to play the victim role and maybe she is. Why, then, does she not treat her daughter the way she herself would have liked to be treated? Mo’Nique is also an important candidate for an Oscar.

‘Precious’ is a penetrating film, with a story that pierces and pricks your skin and leaves deep wounds. Why director Lee Daniels felt it necessary to make his film more palatable by lavishing and needless dream sequences and further dressing the drama with irrelevant close-ups and misplaced symbolism (who knows what the fried eggs and bacon are Precious thinks back to the horrific rape by her father can now report) may be called a mystery. Fortunately, those scenes are contained, so that the scales tip in the right direction. How much misery can a girl go through? Cynics may be of the opinion that things could be a little less and that this excess of misery detracts from the effect that the events have on the viewer. There is certainly a kernel of truth in that. Lee Daniels is therefore balancing on the edge. Yet you always have the idea that you are dealing with real people here who experience misery that also ruins people’s lives in daily reality. But the fact that this story gets under your skin is entirely due to a very convincing cast, full of surprising names that you never thought were capable of this!