MVFF32: 'Precious'

There is a lot of buzz around Lee Daniel's Precious:based on the novel Push by Sapphire, no doubt stoked by Oprah's ringing endorsement ("it split me open") and the presence of pop celebrities Mariah Carey (without makeup everybody) and Lenny Kravitz, but the film is ultimately just another formulaic mainstream product tricked out to look 'different' with its contrived juxtapositions of hard-core domestic violence and schmaltzy teenage glamour-pop musical fantasies. The film is entertaining, and will be a hit with audiences who prefer to contemplate what life should be like, but isn't. There are some good performances, most notably by Mo'Nique as the terrifyingly abusive and ultimately pathetic mother, but they cannot rescue the film from its horribly conventional narrative arc which, given the seriousness of the subject matter, is inappropriate, even exploitative. I haven't read the book, so the problem might begin there, but my sense is that this is an entertainment industry crime.

The story focuses on the character of Clareece "Precious" Jones, a terrifically overweight, illiterate and disenfranchised teenage kid from Harlem, pregnant for the second time with her father's baby, living on welfare with her wretched, foul-mouthed and abusive mother, and newly ejected by the New York Public School system. Things begin to look up for Precious when she enrolls in a special school where, under the compassionate tutelage of the beautiful Ms. Rain (an angel in disguise, an urban myth, or an African American fairy princess) she begins to learn to read and express herself, even talk about college. Her classmates rally around - the schoolgirls' scenes are the funniest in the film - and she finally breaks away from home after the birth of her son, who she is determined to raise herself. She is aided in this transition by her social worker Ms. Weiss (well played by Mariah Carey) and the aforementioned Ms. Rain, who moves bureaucratic mountains to get Precious situated, taking her into her own home in the interim. Precious is finally reunited with her first-born and exits the stage with both children on her way towards a new and hopeful future.

As if! This grotesquely unrealistic but entertaining film will resonate with audiences who need to believe that poverty, illiteracy, morbid obesity, incest, rape, and child abuse do not destroy souls, damage minds, and irrevocably distort people's chances for happiness in this world, that people like Ms. Rain can pluck hapless, emotionally and educationally catatonic children off the streets and 'turn them around', that life isn't so bad, we are all good people inside, and all we need is a bit more love. There are a lot of people who have good reasons for needing to believe in stuff like this, but they aren't the people behind this film, who, on their way to the bank, have swooped in on the poorest members of our society and shoved them blinking onto the runway to Never Never Land, producers and entertainment moguls who will no doubt express for a short while their deep belief in the resilience of humanity while ignoring the ways in which society continues to marginalize its weakest links and grind them down. Ignore the hype about this film, or go for the thrill of Mariah Carey without makeup, but don't think girls like Precious will come through without a sea-change in political and social consciousness. And that means, without us.