Precious (2009)

This is not an easy movie to watch.

Precious is both relentlessly heartbreaking and relentlessly hopeful, which is usually a recipe for a good, thoughtful film. This is no exception. The best thing about Precious is its message of individual worth and the idea that every person has the ability to do something positive with his or her life. The subject matter of the film is intensely horrifying, but it's done in a way that is never gratuitous while, at the same time, never lessening in its severity. I think this result is achieved because director Lee Daniels focuses on the psychological aspects of abuse rather than the physical. While we may not see everything that happens to Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), we certainly see all of its effects.

The screenplay has been adapted by Geoffrey Fletcher from Push, a novel by Sapphire. It tells the story of a girl who is abused, illiterate, obese, sad and seemingly hopeless. Precious has a two-year-old and is pregnant with another child; both her children were conceived in rape by her father. Her mother, Mary (Mo'Nique in a performance I'm sure you've heard about) accuses Precious of "stealing her man," and abuses her physically and psychologically.

This should seem like a story of overwhelming despair, and for a while, that's exactly what it is. The film's shining ray of hope comes from two characters: Precious' alternative-school teacher Ms. Rain (Paula Patton) and her social worker Ms. Weiss (Mariah Carey). These are two women who are clearly capable of love. Through this film, Daniels has shown just what love like that can do.

If this sounds cheesy, forgive me; it's my fault and certainly not the film's. Daniels has managed to strike the perfect balance between sadness and hope so that Precious is neither ultimately dreary and depressing or touchey-feeley and Hallmark-y.

Mo'Nique is almost sure to win an Oscar for her role, and, I must say, it would be well-deserved. She plays Mary with an evil we don't often see in films, probably because it would be too terrifying if it happened all the time. But she understands the reasons for her character's hatred, so we discover that Mary is not purely evil, but a victim herself, in certain ways. That is another thing I appreciate about this film: every character has reasons for being the way they are; there is a reason for everything that happens. It would have been lazy to have played out the drama without showing the causes of all this sadness.

I cannot recommend this movie enough.