Number 29: Precious Earns the Hype…Eventually

If you haven’t at least heard about Precious by now then I’d love to know the rock you’ve been living under and if there’s anyway you could make room for me. Anyone able to miss the overwhelming, Oprah-induced buzz about this film has beaten the odds and just may be rewarded for it. For the rest of us, when a movie garners as much pre-Oscar attention as this one, The English Patient syndrome seems to come with it; “How could you not like Precious?” So if you’re like me, having heard all the praise but missed the chance to see the movie in theaters, this DVD can be an intimidating one to approach. Few films live up to such high expectations and at first, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, directed by Lee Daniels, is no different.

Starring an unknown-until-now Gabourey Sidibe, the film starts out slow, featuring a good bit of narration by Sidibe as the film’s main character Precious. While Precious’ uneducated speech lends a telling voice to the story, it also lessens film’s reliance on Sidibe’s on camera performance, allowing her to walk silently through several of the film’s early scenes. As we begin to learn Precious’ predicament in life, we are more compelled by the intellectual knowledge that these circumstances are hard than by the evidence we see on the screen. When we meet Mo’Nique as Precious’ mother, we are shocked but that is where it ends. A flurry of swearing and insults lets us know that Precious’ home life is bad, but at first meeting, Mo’Nique’s portrayal of Mary comes off as a caricature of a bad mother and not much more.

However, in the middle Precious finds its stride and doesn’t look back. Paula Patton seems to initiate the comeback as Ms. Rain, an alternative school teacher who takes a special interest in Precious. While Patton’s performance is decent, it is the character she portrays who brings just enough hope to the film to keep us in our seats and from there Precious grows and grows into the film you may’ve been hearing about.

Surprisingly enough, especially if the word Glitter means anything to you, Mariah Carey helps the film along nicely in the role of social worker Mrs. Weiss. While the role is admittedly not overly demanding, Carey exceeds any expectations even her mother could have for her and is a player in the pinnacle of the film. In what turns out to be the final scene a shaky camera zooms in and out of the actor’s faces as if even the camera operator was feeling the tension and weight of the moment. It is here that Mo’Nique earns her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and while Sidibe doesn’t quite earn her Best Actress nomination, her performance, like the film, gets better with every scene.

In a season fraught with acclaimed post-Oscar releases, Precious comes like a wave; small if not underwhelming at its beginning but a towering, undeniable force at its end. Whether you have managed to sidestep the freight train of hype or found yourself caught in its headlights, give Precious a chance to the end and you might want to get on board.