‘Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire’: Superbly acted, but hard to watch

Published 3:36 pm Friday, November 20, 2009

By turns pushy and terribly sad, the elaborately titled “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” is a tough film to watch, and to sort through. Endorsed lately by Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, it presents a dismal view of one girl’s existence.

Claireece Jones is the teenager, overweight and unloved. Having been repeatedly raped by her father and harshly abused by her mother, she is now pregnant for the second time (her first child has Down syndrome, a fact her cruel mother exploits to elicit money from social services).

Through some act of delusion or sheer human will, Claireece goes by her middle name: Precious.

The film, directed by Lee Daniels, follows Precious on her journey toward, if not enlightenment, something like self-awareness. Despite all the horrors she endures, she is helped by a hard-working teacher (Paula Patton) and government agencies.

As a filmmaker, Daniels comes on like a tooth-jarring linebacker: He hits high, and he hits hard. He wants us to understand the depth of the cruelty Precious is surrounded by, but even on those terms his staging of the rape scenes is garish and heavy-handed.

Despite that, “Precious” is redeemed to some extent by its acting, which goes a long way toward bringing light into a bleak room. Precious is played by Gabourey Sidibe, a newcomer who, it can be safely said, disappears into the role.

The film’s powerhouse performance is delivered by Mo’Nique, an actress best known for her comic work. She plays Precious’ mother, and the role is so monstrous it would take a major feat of acting to make it something other than a cartoon. Well, this is a major feat of acting, and a scary one.

Patton is fine as the teacher and Lenny Kravitz lends a note of bemused gentleness as a nurse who knows Precious.

Mariah Carey is neatly understated as a social worker. She’s so good I had no idea it was Mariah Carey until maybe two-thirds of the way through her performance. (This makes up for “Glitter,” by the way.)

“Precious” got a big response at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and it’s one of those movies that polarize viewers: Either it’s a brilliant and sensitive look at a unique character or it panders to white audiences’ expectations of how bad things are in the inner city.

I have issues with the movie, but this is a case where careful acting illuminates something about the people we see on screen to a greater degree than the writing or directing.

Whether that makes the film’s harsh world bearable will depend on each viewer’s threshold for onscreen brutality.

“Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire”

Portrait of a pregnant teenage girl (played by newcomer Gabourney Sidibe) so abused by her family and her world that her story is difficult to watch — especially with director Lee Daniels’ heavy touch. A lot of it is transformed by the care of the acting, including Mo’Nique as the girl’s awful mother and Mariah Carey as a social worker.

Rated: R for violence, language, subject matter

Showing: Harvard Exit