Precious

6th Feb 2010

Direc­tor: Lee Daniels

Cast: Mo’Nique, Gabourey Sadibe

Cert:15

Star Rat­ing: 4/5

Pre­cious: Based on the Novel Push by Sap­phire. Bit of a mouth­ful, that, but ignore the title and what you have left is an intel­li­gent and emo­tional film about sur­viv­ing domes­tic abuse. Pre­cious is a story about humans at their best and their basest, and it is a story that has struck a chord win­ning awards and box office success.

Pre­cious is a six­teen year old obese black girl liv­ing in Harlem, 1987. She is abused by her mother, and preg­nant by her (now absent) father for the sec­ond time. She is poorly edu­cated and often uncom­mu­nica­tive. She has flash­backs of her father rap­ing her, which she keeps at bay with day­dreams of danc­ing on TV in a beau­ti­ful dress.

The abil­ity to see Pre­cious’ flights of fancy and mem­o­ries of abuse puts you right next to her, expe­ri­enc­ing her exis­tence. The day­dreams jar des­per­ately with the claus­tro­pho­bic real­ity of life with her mum in a flat, cur­tains drawn. The day­dreams show us a per­son­al­ity that is hor­ri­bly oppressed.

Pre­cious’ strength sticks in the mind and infuses the film with an essen­tial sense of opti­mism. She over­comes her obsta­cles with the help of well-realised sup­port­ing char­ac­ters. Gabourey Sidibe embod­ies Pre­cious, and Mo’Nique gives a tow­er­ing per­for­mance as the fear­some and bit­ter mother. The scene of her con­fes­sion will be one of the most pow­er­ful of any film this year.

Lee Daniels, as a first time direc­tor man­ages to cre­ate a vibrant and pow­er­ful film, though at times the cut­ting of scenes and pac­ing of devel­op­ments can be sur­pris­ing. Strong per­for­mances from the cast over­shadow any minor tech­ni­cal issues. Pre­cious res­onates on an emo­tional level and deserves to be seen.