By Odeisel

We often complain about the lack of good storytelling in movies that feature Black characters. The proliferation of shucking and jiving and the projection of non favorable stereotypes runs rampant in Hollywood. There are many movies with projections of Black caricature, but not many with Black people that have genuine issues, emit genuine emotion, and allow Black actors to actually display their range. Precious, an adaptation of the 1996 novel Push is the exception to the norm and its strikingly guttural portrayal of urban hopelessness is so real that you will find yourself drawn into its roller coaster ride of tumult and emotion.

Clareece “Precious” Jones, played credibly by Gabourney Sibidy, is an overweight, illiterate Harlem teen, whose life is the picture of dysfunction. She is sexually abused by both her father and her mother, lives in poverty, and attends a school where the kids have no interest in learning. Her life is a maelstrom of violence, hopelessness, and despair, complete with two children from her father’s sexual advances, one of who has Down syndrome.

Her mind is so battered by abuse that she has daydreams of incredible delusion, often imagining herself as everything she isn’t. She dreams of the love of a boyfriend she’s never had, even imagining romance with her Math teacher. She imagines herself in her mirror image as white, slim and beautiful; everything she feels she isn’t. To cope with her Hell of a life, Precious has conjured this alternate reality where love and aspiration replace despair and hopelessness and the suicidal thoughts she wrestles with daily.

Her mother, driven by a seething jealous anger, played with chilling authenticity by comedienne Mo’nique, serves as Precious’ biggest demon, typifying the hatred that has seemingly stamped out any chance of success, love, and progress in her life. Their relationship is adversarial, violent, and abusive.

She finds a chance at change when she ends up at an alternative school under the watch of teacher Ms. Rain (Paula Patton), forming bonds with her classmates, who have similar dysfunction in their lives.  The class setting allows for the girls to grow as friends even in the face of their initial prejudices and differences, and they become like the Sweat Hogs in their collective loving, albeit comical relationship.

As Precious begins to slowly, inexorably exorcise her demons, she faces more calamity; but is not without allies. Mariah Carey is extremely convincing as Mrs. Weiss, a welfare worker who discovers hints of the abuse in the Jones household and works to get to the bottom of it. Carey is devoid of glitter (pun intended) and any trace of diva in a great performance including a “Lawngeylind” accent that is authentic in tone and delivery. Precious’ classmates and Ms. Rain also lend moral support as she fights to change her miserable life. Lenny Kravitz plays male nurse John with a muted masculine tenderness that is entirely appropriate for the role.

Technically, director Lee Daniels succeeds in bringing the grit of crack–era Harlem to light.  The trash- hewn streets, the truant kids, and the immense weight of Reaganomics-driven urban poverty are on full display. The Jones household feels like a cauldron of torture, failure, and the pain of two generations. There are some flaws in editing, but in all, the shots capture the emotional rollercoaster of the movie.

Precious is the story of survival. Of what happens when hopelessness grabs you in a vice grip and there’s no end in sight. Some people fold, while some do whatever it takes to soldier on whether it’s conscious activity or not. Precious Jones is a survivor. She is human. Her struggle could probably be co-opted by viewers and applied to their own struggles in hundreds of ways. But most important, this journey is not caricatured, there is no magic incredulous wand, and no rescue. There is no knight in shining armor, and all the laughs in the movie are cathartic and intentionally unintentional. It is life in all its chilling and painful reality. See this movie because it’s a great story. See this movie if you want to experience the emotional ride. See this movie if you want to see whether the portrayals of these actresses are really as good as the early reports. But most important, see this movie because it is real. There is no dancing her way out of the ghetto. There is no fairy tale ending. But there is progression and actualization, and the lessons learned by the characters in this movie are real, natural, and not always happy but never contrived.

Out of 5