"Precious" Review

"Precious"

 I saw Precious tonight with some friends. We had a nice heated discussion about it on the way back so naturally I had to process my thoughts, and write about it. This is now primarily written to them in response to our discussion, so I won't give much segue, but if you've seen it you'll follow me.

I'll start with a quote from an interview I was reading with Lee Daniels, the director: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/magazine/25precious-t.html?pagewanted=6&_r=1

“You know,” he said finally, “I didn’t think Obama was going to win... when I met Obama, I realized I’d been prejudiced by years of feeling unworthy. And that’s the message of ‘Precious.’ My world is dark, but the light is coming on.”

He's quite a character, and not too self-serious about his film (he also happens to be gay, and thus dealing with a whole 'nother can of worms). But behind his playfulness obviously he's being heartfelt and this project clearly means a lot to him. Thus I'm taking his film seriously and I'm listening to what he says, and trying to figure out what I should take away from it. I believe the film must be assessed on his terms, as a statement, and not as much as a piece of film (as worthwhile as it also is in that regard). I just feel that it was real enough and good *enough* to warrant that consideration (coughcough unlikecrashcough), and that it had something legitimate and honest at heart.

So what is that? The one thing that Daniels is talking about is enabling identification with Precious, the main character, a fat young black girl being raised in the urban slums, in terms of the psychological toll that living in the house with her abusive mother, and the circumstances of her life in general, have taken. It is unlikely to be possible that someone with a suburban upbringing could identify with such a character. I think that through her we're meant to understand that Precious' plight is one of black america generally - feeling disregarded, unworthy, rejected. A people-wide inferiority complex (as a Jew I can relate). We'd like to think we are beyond race, but we are still very much struggling with cultural and social differences that hamper our sense of tolerance and unity.

Now that I think about it, this is the first piece I have read since Ellison's "Invisible Man" that tries to communicate something like that - tries to get you to share its sense of another person's internal space, in order to heighten your compassion for the Other. It isn't really about blaming anyone for the situation, it's about fixing it. And the first step, the only step, we need is to stay aware and keen in terms of our mental approach toward outsiders in order to cease our critical and alienating attitude.  This is achieved through art such as the fiction of Invisible Man and Precious but giving us characters to identify with personally at the level of the heart, the intellect, and the emotions, teaching us that race is something to be considered artfully, not haphazardly.

I also don't think Precious was only about speaking to outsiders. It speaks to the black community itself. It's about "so-what" you've got problems, "now-what" do you do about it. It portrays a message that says, take accountability, take charge. Precious is definitely the unlikely hero - the unlikeliest of all possible heroes – moreso even than the sterile Obama. It does fill a void.