Remembering “Precious” on its 10th Anniversary
Wednesday, November 6, 2019 at 3:06PM by Cláudio Alves
Considering I haven't watched it in almost 10 years, it was amazing how much I could accurately recall from Lee Daniel's Precious. As I revisited the Academy-Award winning film to write this piece, I found myself startled at how much of it had seared into my mind. A few line readings were so vivid that, even before hearing them again, they felt like echoes from years ago. Individual scenes had metastazied into memories like vociferous ghosts, brighter than any recollections of my actual life.
The way Gabourey Sidibe says that nobody loves her still hurts, a dagger of vulnerability mercilessly plunged into the audience's heart. No less affecting is Paula Patton's desperate response, assuring Claireece 'Precious' Jones that she is loved. Notice how Mariah Carey shows her social worker's interiority through repressed horror. She wears an armor of acerbity, delivering her lines with a put-upon dryness that both masks and iluminates the hurt inside. Then there's Mo'Nique and her final monologue, a sobbed question tearing through her throat and reminding us that this monster is painfully human. The film even packs some comedic delights. Who can forget Xosha Roquemore telling the class that her favorite color is fluorescent beige?
Those brilliant actresses are the heart and soul of a film I wish I could admire past the greatness of its cast. Unfortunately, what seemed unnecessarily sensationalistic in 2009, only seems more so after a decade has gone by. Lee Daniels holds the honor of being just the second African-American man to be nominated for the Best Director Oscar. However, despite such recognition, most of the film's problems are born out of his approach to what was already a narrative perilously close to falling into the abyss of misery porn.
Daniels never met a stylistic flourish he didn't want to try out. At least, that's what it feels like when you watch Precious' patchwork of maniacal formalism, sown together with little interest in tonal cohesion. Surprisingly, some of it works, like the glamorous fantasies that allow us to peek into the protagonist's aspirations. Though, for every inspired touch, ten others refuse to come together. Think of the grotesque close-ups of sizzling food or a bizarre interlude of Italian Neorealism pastiche. At least, he's a great director of actors.
Like Daniels, screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher holds an Oscar record, being the first African-American to win the Adapted Screenplay category. Unlike Daniels, his work isn't as inconsistent. The film's highlights owe a great deal to Fletcher's adaptation of Sapphire's original novel. Mo'Nique's towering monologue is insanely good and even if the actress's performance is what elevates the scene to the highest echelons, the foundation of such greatness is in the screenplay's stark paroxysms of terrifying humanity and exorcised trauma. The way she acts such text is, of course, all her doing and that's why she won her richly deserved Oscar.
Honestly, one could write an entire book about the work of this cast, but I'll try to be succinct. Mostly, I'd like to shed light on the performer that was Oscar-nominated but didn't win. Gabourey Sidibe is monumental in this, playing a teenager so abused that she appears to expect pain at every turn. She modulates her shell of antisocial toughness, slowly revealing the character's longings, her hurt and desperation, her resoluteness and her joy. Part of Sidibe's genius is how she goes against simplistic readings of her character as a unidimensional victim. Precious, at times, is like a depuration of human pain, but the actress never allows her to be solely defined by the suffering she endures. Above all else, Sidibe's Precious is a beautifully complex human being.
It says a lot about our culture that, back during the 2009/10 Awards Season, Gabourey Sidibe and fellow Best Actress nominee Carey Mulligan were treated so very differently by the media. Both were breakthrough stories of success, but, while the British ingenue was compared to Audrey Hepburn and celebrated as a rising star, Sidibe faced immediate conjectures about the uncertainty of her future. Many a review seemed to reflect an assumption that she was just playing herself. When the actress's ebullient personality shone through during the press tour, suddenly the value of her work seemed to lie solely on the surprise people felt when they realized the actress was dramatically unlike her character in real life.
Racist media coverage and venomous societal preconceptions aside, both Mo'Nique and Gabourey Sidibe deliver the sort of performances that, even if they had nothing else in their filmography, would rightfully signal them as two of the greatest actresses of our time. I personally would have voted for both of them that year.
Reader Comments (17)
Of the nominees (Tilda Swinton's snub still smarts), Sidibe absolutely deserved the Oscar that year. And Mo'Nique richly deserved her Oscar as well. In fact, the entire cast is in fine form (including Mariah Carey), delivering one of the most unforgettable lines in movie history: "My favorite color is fluorescent beige."
I admire Sidibe's performance. That said, I still wonder what the film would have been had Jennifer Hudson who was offered the lead role first had not declined.
Mo'nique post career is a shame too and I don't believe it's all her doing ,though maybe she is part of the problem.
If Mo'nique never acted again this would be 1 of the greatest winners in this category ever.
Her speech is thing of wonder the night she won.This woman truly felt that moment.
I'm a Mulligan fan but on rewatch Sidibe is heartbreaking and so ordinary,stealing chicken,throwing up,slapping a smart mouth down,standing up to her mum,her shrug of a line when she aludes to the abuse from her mother "I thought she'd stopped this s+++" it's delivered so uneventfully but I found it so tragic.
And the gang of girls make it like you say,the film says a lot about the state of some African American women's lives in that classroom.
Can we also say how lovely and real Patton is in this,she sells the love of Precious very well.
Thanks for getting it spot on.
The interludes don't bother me,I do see why others find them jarring.
Claudio, what a beautifully written article! I appreciate especially that you've pointed out what holds up and what doesn't, as I personally don't think Precious is a very good film. And while I don't agree that Sidibe was great, and was aggressively bad on her AHS stints, it's nice to read such articulate and impassioned writing in favor of her work here. Bravo!
Sidibe certainly did not deserve to win the Oscar, but Mo'Nique's performance is wonderful.
Monique's work is really strong, if not towering here. And when you compare her performance to the "bad mom" that won this decade, Janney's LaVona in I, Tanya, it's even clearer how truly special her performance is.
I was really nervous, at the time, that Sidibe would be quickly forgotten because that's what hollywood does with most Black actresses, but I'm glad she has been steadily working since. I just hope someone makes a project that uses all of her talents again.
I think Gabby deserved the Oscar as well. Some of the best acting that I've seen. I was sixteen when this movie came out and it was when I'd started following the award season, and I remember this film and Gabby'Mo'Nique having a huge impact on me then.
The press Sidibe received during award season is more a critique of Hollywood itself than who she is as a viable actress. Her aesthetics alone limit what anyone was willing to do for her. Thank goodness that TV has space and place for outcast and outsiders of conventional movie casting.
Sidibe should have won that Oscar she was by far the strongest of that otherwise forgettable line up
I agree Monique is transcendental in the role, her realness contrasting with the heavy-handed approach and bad taste by Lee Daniels. However, I found Sidibe's performance to be very poor. There was never a moment I couldn't see the amateur in a lead role. Her line deliveries never rang true, we can never see her eyes (which makes the line deliveries that much more cricial) and it just seemed the director would give her the actions and choices she needed to make. In other words, I never saw a creation, a character that was developed by the actress. Besides, there was not much body language or nuance, which are important components in any performance. To me this was a case of the role being so over-the-top melodramatic (poor, black, obese, illiterate, raped by her dad AND her mom, mother of a child with Down syndrome, HIV +) that (white) people just seemed to pity the character and give kudos to the person playing it. Or maybe I'm just a fan of subtlety and never saw any of it in the characterization.
I feel the urge to respond on the "who deserved the Oscar" discussion but first, thanks for the write-up. Whilst I was one who felt it did fall into the "misery porn" category quite well, I appreciate the interpretations and observations from someone who adores the movie more.
Although they're wildly different, I don't think Streep's performance as Julia Childs can be dismissed (it was my personal choice of best in that category that year).
And I absolutely know that I am in the minority, but Penelope Cruz's ability to lift NINE out of the quagmire it threatened to become, means that hers was a deserving performance as much as Mo'Nique's (but for vastly different reasons).
Wonderful write-up! I have seen this film far too many times. I love your comments on the tonal shifts. The plot of Precious is incredibly bleak, and yet is peppered with these moments of lightness, humor, and even hope (the arc where she leaves her mother and stays with Blu Rain and her partner on Christmas, especially).
I remember being irrationally upset that Mariah Carey didn’t get an Oscar nom. I gust the bar was low, but I was mesmerized by how NOT MARIAH CAREY she is in this movie. I also love the casting of Lenny Kravitz and Sherri Shepherd in understated roles.
I remember seeing an interview with Lee Daniels where he talked about how differently the movie played for audiences. I was genuinely surprised when the Academy fully embraced the film beyond the performances. Black stories told by Black people ain't always their bag, but they went for this. Was it the Oprah connection? Were they genuinely moved by how nearly every negative thing that could happen to Precious, DID happen to Precious? Because for me, those towering performances aside (Mo'Nique's is truly one for the ages), the movie is a bit of a mess.
Lee Daniel's. bless his heart, can tell a story, but as an earlier poster noted, his aesthetics are questionable. Which gets me back to my first thought about how differently the films plays depending on the audience. Daniel's said they showed a preview to a mostly Black audience in Harlem, and it played as comedy. He didn't seem to be offended, or mind all that much, and I think that's a problem. Not to say there can't be some lightness is darkness, but should the tonal response be able to make such radical flips?
http://thefilmexperience.net/blog/2019/10/31/101-days-til-oscar-how-will-disneys-fare-fare.html
Charlotte Gainsbourg and Tilda Swinton sadly didn’t factor into the awards season, but of the nominees, Gabourey Sidibe was miles ahead of the rest. And Mo’Nique is one of the greatest wins of the category.
This post really touches on a lot of how I feel about this film. Many of the directorial choices are in incredibly bad taste, but what a monumental cast.
Excellent write-up! Gabby should have won the Oscar EASILY the year, but the universe needed Sandra Bullock to be an Oscar winner instead SMDH. At least Mo'Nique won. Best supporting actress winner of the past 25 years, at least, and a contender for the all-time top 10.
Swinton delivered the best perforamnce that year. Of the nominees, I would have given it to Mulilgan or Sidibe. They were both great (and I can't say I'd give it to 2+ of the five nominees most years). As I get older, Sidibe's performance grows in my estimation.