Must See - Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire

(Gabourey Sidebe and a refreshing Paula Patton in Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire)

As Precious opens, the 16-year-old Claireece “Precious” Jones is pregnant for the second time with her father’s baby. She is illiterate, overweight and living with a mother who beats and rapes her. But things begin to change for Precious when she enrolls at an alternative school for young women. Here, with the help of her teacher, Ms. Rain, she begins to learn her value and starts the slow processes of learning to read. She also starts to confront and excise her demons.

Lee Daniels manages something remarkable with his adaptation of PUSH, a 1997 novel by the poet Sapphire. Where the novel is perhaps the bleakest, must unsettling work of fiction I've ever read, the film is sometimes humorous despite the pain, and it ends with the clearest signs of hope. We have Gabourey Sidebe to thank for this.

Sidebe raises Precious above caricature and stereotype by displaying the fullest range of emotions. She’s, at first, understandably withdrawn, tight-lipped and angry. She shouts at her classmates when they cut up in class. She fantasizes about what her life could be if she were wealthy, pretty, skinny, white and living in Westchester or somewhere with the math teacher who smiles at her. In her fantasies, we see a happy Precious, someone effusive and expressive. The contrast is striking and wholly believable.

Then, there is Mo’Nique. And my god, Mo’Nique is brilliant. She’s grotesque in her physical want for her daughter and horrifying in the violence. Mo’Nique digs deep within the soul of this woman and lays bare the pathology that brought her here.

In a 1988 interview for Women’s Review of Books, Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison said no one who’s been hurt or abused tells her story voluntarily, but “when they do say it, and hear it, and look at it, and share it, they are not only one, they’re two, and three, and four, you know? The collective sharing of their information heals the individual – and the collective.”

We witness a sort of collective healing in Precious. The story belongs to the title character; it's her journey. But the healing is also Ms. Rain's, the girls in Precious' class, even the counselor (a convincing Mariah Carey).

It's also ours. Yes, this is a work of fiction. But the circumstances that created Precious -- the fucked-up school system, the cycle of violence in the inner city, parents so downtrodden and wanton they abuse their children -- all of this is part our America, one that resides alongside the pretty picture of Barack and Michelle Obama in the White House.

Some people won't like this movie. They'll say it's too harsh, that what Precious endures isn't realistic, that movies are supposed to entertain. But I think movies -- and stories in general -- are supposed to do much more. They're supposed to inform and uplift. And if they're truly great, enlighten. Monster's Ball, the Lee Daniels-produced movie that won Halle Berry her Oscar, fell short by a few miles. Precious, though not perfect, gets rather close.