Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009)

As a 1987 Harlem teenager, Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) is portrayed as and feels like a poor excuse for a human. Never mind the well known over-indulgent gen x-er teenagers you knew. Precious is an obese, illiterate, still in the 8th grade sixteen year old mother of a child with Down’s syndrome (affectionately called “Mongo”), living in a slum of an apartment in Harlem with a welfare mother and absentee incestuous father. At this point I imagine your attention is grabbed… no gripped. But hold on now, for the emotional ride of your movie watching life.

In between beatings from her mother, Precious mopes around the streets of Harlem eating fried chicken and getting kicked by neighborhood gang boys. You know Precious realizes how bad she has it when she tells her teacher Ms. Blu Rain (Paula Patton) “Sometimes I wish I was dead. But um lookin up, um lookin up for a piano to fall.” More evidence that she is aware of her current wretched situation in life is obvious as she fantasizes about a different life. Lee Daniels, the genius director of this film, has uncannily put the viewer in the roller coaster seat. You actually feel like you are seeing everything through Precious’ eyes. Like when Precious is fantasizing about walking the red carpet, performing on stage, or more profoundly looking in the mirror to see a thin, attractive, white woman. And then... her mother’s fist slams the side of her head.
When she discovers she is pregnant with her second child conceived with her father, Precious has the where with all to try and find a way out of the hell she is living in. She enters herself into an alternative school “Each One, Teach One” where she needs to get and 8.0 or better to obtain her GED. There she finds herself surrounded by the comfort of other teenage girls trying to overcome the challenges of inner city life. They celebrate the birth of her baby with her and create camaraderie around mutual challenges, even if it is to out-do each other.
Precious’s mother Mary (pun intended) is nothing of the sort. In this Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award winning role, Mo’nique has created a monster of a character as memorable and frightening as Hannibal Lecter. The dissonance created by this character presents the viewer with the ultimate challenge of feeling sympathy in a final scene where Mary tries to excuse her inexcusable behavior to Ms. Weiss (Mariah Carey) her social worker with the story of how she became the monster that she is. You see her boyfriend, the love of her life, and Precious’s father was having sex with his daughter, and she got violently (literally) jealous. The viewer is torn between a “boo, hoo, let’s call the waambulance” reaction, and a genuine empathy for this pathetic mother of a pathetic daughter and granddaughter.

I was disappointed to see the role of the nursing assistant who they call Nurse John (well played by Lenny Kravitz) portrayed. Once again the entertainment industry has taken a poetic license that borders on disrespectful to the profession. Not only is it inappropriate to call Nurse John a nurse when he isn’t one, but when Precious and her friends start verbalizing sexual fantasies about John and then he actually kisses Precious and shows up at a party in her honor, the portrayal starts to become frustratingly inaccurate. Maybe in Harlem that’s how health care professionals act, but I highly doubt it and take offense to the insinuation.

The goal of these reviews is to find the pertinence to the role of today’s nurse and highlight it in such a way that somehow enhances that role. Well if Precious had a nursing care plan, it would focus on Maslow’s safety and security and love and belonging and look something like this: Disturbed Body Image r/t morbid obesity; Risk-prone health behavior r/t the fact that she lives in bullet flying Harlem; Ineffective Coping m/b eating a bucket of fried chicken to curb her anxiety, Risk for Compromised Human Dignity r/t being used as a punching bag by her mother; Powerlessness and let’s not forget Hopelessness.

This movie, although excellent in every way, is hardly entertaining. It is a thought provoking, heart wrenching, and passion evoking, emotional tug-of-war-which makes it a genius of a movie. If you like the thrill and scare of rollercoasters, this is the “Cyclone” of movies.

Boston society of film Critics award for best ensemble cast and best supporting actress Mo’Nique. Golden Globe award for best supporting actress in a motion picture Mo’Nique.
Academy Award Winner for Best Actress Mo'Nique.

“Precious: Based on the Novel Push By Sapphire” is rated PG-13
Reviewer Rating: 4 out of 5 boxes of popcorn
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Written by: Sapphire (book), Geoffrey Fletcher (adapted screenplay)
Directed by: Lee Daniels
Available on Blu-Ray, DVD, and Digital Download.