Why I Will Never Watch Precious Again.

The novel is dark, seedy but intensely compelling, so was the film. Each actor/actress filled their respective roles incredibly well, so I can't detract from it artistically. Nor will I say it's not essential to one's literary canon or film-viewing repertoire.  But it kinda makes you want to die after you watch it. 

I realize that when one views art, even when it is burdensome to consider, one should still be able to apply thankfulness and catharsis liberally to their own life. One should be able to thank the heavens, the stars, the universe, allah, buddha, god, jesus, and/or mary that the subject's life or fate is not your own. But after this film I didn't want to get out of bed the next day. The only other movie that made me feel like that was "Edward Scissorhands." In both the Tim Burton classic, and this adaptation of Sapphire's novel ''Push'' the protagonists do survive. Precious even finds some moments of triumph in her life, but you're just left with this empty heavy feeling. Because the world is cruel and you know they have a long road ahead. 

As discussed in another post, I choose what eyes to view a story with, so I don't have a fundamental problem with the messaging or the portrayal of black, urban, womanhood in this film. I wish we had more films to counter-balance the harshness of this story, the realities it's steeped in, and the erroneous idea that ''black life'' is some shade or degree of this story, but in general I'm not offended by it. However, watching it again is something I will not be able to do. 

When you read a book you can adjust the image that you see, it changes because the imagination is fluid. When that story is translated to film, it takes that fluidity and anchors it to your consciousness, to your perception, to your memory. The job of portraying Preciou's dismal existence was righteously done. So in a way, I'm paying the film a compliment. It was too dark for me to watch again, but having seen it, I don't regret taking the journey. 

The performances were excellent. This film, with Lee Daniels at the helm, really seemed to push these actors into a place their respective audiences haven't known them to be in before. Mariah Carey was stripped down to an nearly unrecognizable degree in her portrayal of an aid office worker, who sees Precious at a crossroads. Paula Patton's usual effervescence was channeled into this teacher who believed good things were possible for everyone, but that the hurdles, especially for her pupils were tougher than anything in the Illad or The Oddessey, and that their help would not come from the hand of Zeus, if any help came at all. She taught the girls to be their own help. Lenny Kravitz is always a delight to see on film, it's just that simple. His character also meets Precious at a crossroad and acts as a guide for her in someways. Gabby Sidibe who's background is NOTHING like this character, fell so hard into this role, and nailed it. But the performance from Monique is the one that made the film so bone-chilling and the story so tough to sit through. Her academy award was well deserved, because I think she may have murdered ''Nikki Parker'' and danced in her ashes to become that horrible, Carrie's Mom-like character. She was twisted, cruel, self-loathing, and self-righteous; a sadist who had been broken to the point where love for her child was a crime against herself. 

Without re-telling all the sordid details, the story from Push, or as we know it now Precious isn't just a black/urban story, but one that is due to a litany of systemic failures compounded in many severe and complex ways. It should be a catalyst that makes us question how we allow people to slip through the cracks. It happens to each of us who find ourselves at a disadvantage socially, politically, economically, by gender, by orientation, handicap, and in this whole concept of ''race'' as it's done. Precious should represent the failings of society, but also the personal choices of people to harm others. This happens all over. As seen with the mix of girls she meets in her classrooms, their stories were as diverse as their skin, their hair, their ethnic origins. This is a tale of a victim, who could not name or escape her captors (both human and systemic). But once she was taught to rally behind her thoughts and experiences, to speak to them, to be free to want more and to work for more, she begins to find strength and freedom. So in turn, this film should also serve as a meditation on the strength of the human spirit. Despite all, she survives. By the end of the story, she also seems to be rising, and having had her child, that child indeed represents hope for the future. 

I recommend: Seeing the film once, if you haven't. But more than that reading the novel, because Sapphire can tell a great story. She's sort of like Toni Morrison in style, but her writing has a sharper tone to match her protagonist's concrete, mortar and brick environment. The novel is incredibly well done.