Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009)

Despite all the buzz and favorable word of mouth by people we know, Jack and I were not eager to see this, afraid it would be awfully depressing. But we left the theatre not drained but entertained. There was some humor and hope in this bleak tale of some of the saddest circumstances one could imagine taking place in our very own society. In case you've been hiding under a rock, I'll fill you in: in 1987, 16 year old Claireece Precious Jones is not only fat, she is pregnant, lives in Harlem with her sadistic abusive mother, and is having a hard time in school and in life. When it gets too rough, Precious escapes into her fantasy life, starting right at the beginning of the movie. And, though one would think she would give up, she doesn't. Earlier this week I happened upon David Letterman's interview with the star, Gabourey Sidibe, who is sweet and bubbly and said that watching the movie would make viewers happy about their own lives (here she is on Ellen, but be warned, there is a mild spoiler in the interview). That's when I began to relax about seeing it and I'm very glad we did. Now 26 years old, Sidibe had not acted before but has another project in the can and possibly a third in pre-production. Mo'Nique, best known for loud and predictable comedy, delivers the most amazing performance in the movie, as Precious' mother. Her voice is low and scary, because we know that she can blow at any moment. She is the winner of one of the 8 awards so far for this movie, and is a favorite for an Oscar nomination. Mo'Nique was in the only other movie that Lee Daniels directed, Shadowboxer (2005--a very good, very nasty and violent piece starring Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding, Jr.), playing a character named Precious. Daniels also was one of the producers of Monster's Ball (2001), which won an Oscar for Halle Berry. The rest of the supporting cast is good, especially Precious' young classmates, as well as Paula Patton (Deja Vu (2006)) as Ms. Rain. That's singer Lenny Kravitz as the male nurse, and, as you probably know, Mariah Carey as the social worker. Sapphire has written one novel and this is it, published in 1997, and Geoffrey Fletcher, who wrote the screenplay, had also not written anything before. If not for Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry putting their names on this project as executive producers a month after the Sundance awards, this movie would not be playing on 12 screens in my hometown. But it's really good and people should see it.

Maybe you know how we are about the end credits--we stay and watch them to the end. Jack & I were baffled yesterday because the closing credits faded in, and then, just as they reached full brightness, quickly faded out, making them difficult to read, nay, impossible when the practice here in the heartland is to turn up the lights during that time (and why are the credits in parentheses?). The opening credits, however, were clever, with phonetic spellings of the "street" pronunciations of the names and words. And, as usual, there are a few more songs in the movie than the 12 released on the soundtrack and the one listed on imdb (including Do It by Kravitz, perhaps from his next album--here's a link about it). Lastly, I must mention the disgusting food in the movie. It may cause you to crave fresh vegetables.