At the Movies

by Esther McCarthy

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PRECIOUS MOMENTS

Emotional roller-coaster about abused black teenager will knock your socks off

PRECIOUS (15A) starstarstarstarstar

THE STARS: Gabby Sidibe, Monique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz.

THE STORY: Teenager Clarice 'Precious' Jones has never had a break in her life. Mentally and physically abused, poor and pregnant for the second time by her father, her future ain't looking bright. But when a teacher takes an interest in her, Precious jumps at the chance to break out of her grim daily cycle through education.

INCREDIBLE: Gabby Sidibe’s performance as Precious is one of the most amazing things you’ll see this yearPrecious is a movie packed with contradictions.

It's grim and tough going, yet full of hope. In a film business obsessed with looks and image, its heroine is an obese black woman.

Mariah Carey's in it, but it's great.

It's also one of the most powerful and affecting movies you'll see this year, packed with the sort of stand-out performances that better-known actors could only dream of.

January is when Irish cinemagoers get to see a flurry of films that have been talked up to death during awards-season hype.

Some of them live up to it, many of them don't. To add to the fuss about Precious, it's been labelled America's first post-Obama movie.

Angry

It's based on a story idea that could have been very mawkish indeed. Based on the novel Push by the author Sapphire, the central character is the teenage girl of the film's title.

Set in Harlem in the 1980s, Precious has a life that would be difficult for anyone to bear. Following years of abuse, she's become pregnant for the second time by her father, who no longer lives in the family home.

She's expected to do everything for her mother, a deeply angry woman who subjects her to physical and emotional violence.

But this is no ordinary bad luck story. Director Lee Daniels has presented us with a feisty, smart, and often funny teenager who's
getting to the age where she wants her independence.

And when she's given the option to either be expelled or move to a remedial school after becoming pregnant again, Precious seizes the opportunity to make some changes, however small, in her life.

While the movie doesn't shirk from showing us the graphic difficulties she faces, the film's real strength is that it places us right inside her head.

Cringe

UNRECOGNISABLE: Mariah Carey with Gabby SidibeWe learn that she wants to be a movie star, cringe at her crush on a teacher, and laugh when she kicks a fellow student's butt for calling her fat.

She's witty, too. At one point, while in the company of two middle-class people having a dinner-party conversation, we hear her voice quietly say: "They talk like people in TV shows I don't watch".

It helps that each performance is natural and note perfect. Newcomer Sidibe is just wonderful as the title character and her lack of formal training works to everyone's benefit here.

Monique avoids making her monstrous mother a cartoon baddie and the result is all more raw and powerful, while Mariah Carey, who brought us the awful Glitter, is restrained and barely recognisable as Precious's counsellor.

THE VERDICT:

Some of the more emotional scenes are really difficult to watch but Precious is nevertheless a must-see. This gem will feature among the very finest movies of 2010.

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