Prepare To Be Floored

Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire

***1/2 out of ****

Directed by: Lee Daniels

Starring: Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz

Running time: 110 minutes

Last January, a small film with a long title screened at the Sundance Film Festival.

Days later, it picked up a distributor (Lions Gate), promotional assistance from not one but two executive producers (Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry), and won not one but three festival accolades (including the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize).

Not a bad start for one of 2009’s best and most courageous features.

Precious (I’m dropping the film’s clumsy subtitle) is a blisteringly powerful picture. It would have been easy for director Lee Daniels and writer Geoffrey Fletcher to drown the story of an overweight, illiterate, exploited, pregnant 16-year-old African-American in ceaseless melodrama.

Instead, the film becomes both unnervingly harrowing and poignantly inspiring – mainly due to the exceptional performances within it.

It is 1987 in Harlem and a young African-American girl named Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) dreams of being on the cover of a magazine and a dancer in a BET music video.

Unfortunately, she lives in a cramped apartment with her volcanic mother, Mary (Mo’Nique), a coach potato who abuses her only child with profanity and punches.

As well, Precious’s first child (referred to as “Mongo") has Down syndrome and lives far away from the inferno of a tenement.

To make matters worse, the teenager is suspended from junior high school after becoming pregnant – the consequences of a rape from her drug-addicted father. She is also roughed up by boys in her neighbourhood, who mock her obesity.

Once Precious escapes the throes of her home life, she begins attending an alternative school. The teacher, Blu Rain (Paula Patton), sees through Precious’s armour, notices her pain, and works with her to get a diploma.

Moreover, a diligent social worker (a de-glittered Mariah Carey) and a friendly nurse (rocker Lenny Kravitz) also help out the misunderstood teen.

If that synopsis didn’t clarify, this is a raw, physically draining film. Precious’s squalid tale is not an easy one for audiences – the scenes at home are stomach-churning.

Yet the film’s performances are nothing short of staggering. Sidibe is heartbreaking (in her film debut, no less) as the title character. She brings a fierce, penetrating look to this tortured soul, but also a quiet wisdom and soft smile that capture our sympathy.

I never thought I would say this but Mo’Nique stands a solid chance of getting an Oscar next March. The bubbly comedienne is nothing short of electrifying as the morally sordid Mary – and never becomes a cheap caricature in the process. Mary belongs beside Alex Forrest and Annie Wilkes as one of cinema’s most fiery female villains.

The rest of the cast is excellent, as well. Mariah Carey and Paula Patton, both as compassionate figures who are left shattered by Precious's woes, offer dignified, heartwarming supporting performances.

This film may seem like two hours of horror, but director Lee Daniels has a way of looking past the unbearable trauma.

He shows us many of Precious’s fantasies – breaking from the doom and gloom to show us the bloom. For instance, when she looks in the mirror, a pretty, blond girl looks back. While she is raped by her father (shown only briefly), Precious imagines herself signing autographs at a film premiere.

Daniels understands that this creation, created in a novel by Sapphire (real name: Ramona Loften), is a smart, hard-working girl with dreams, allowing her to overcome an absolutely treacherous situation.

At points, Precious is intolerably horrific. Those without a tough stomach may find it simply unendurable. But what makes this film so precious is that by the end, there’s still a diamond sparkling from within the mud. Prepare to be floored.