'Precious' this year's 'Slumdog,' minus the 'Millionaire'

By Sarah Sluis

After seeing Precious some weeks ago, I had pushed it to the back of my mind, but today I saw this letter posted on Tyler Perry's website (via Movieline), and the movie was just as fresh as it was a month ago. In the letter, Perry details his rough childhood and the abuses he suffered, all of which made him want to support Precious. Oprah Winfrey, who has also signed on as an executive producer, has revealed before on her show that she was sexually abused as a child. For Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, this movie recalls real experiences. Even the movie's website URL, weareallprecious.com, emphasizes identification with Precious. But is having a terrible childhood a prerequisite for seeing this movie and having an emotionally wrought experience? I say no.

Precious, which stars Gabourey Sidibe, follows a young, poor, black teenager living in Harlem in the 1980s. She has been sexually abused by her father. She is pregnant with his second child. Her first child has Down syndrome and lives with her grandma. Her mother emotionally and physically abuses her. She can't read. She's obese. What does she even have to live for? Under Lee Daniels' direction, the experience is pathos overdrive, which I think explains the movie's success to date.

Viewers have overwhelmingly approved of the film, giving it audience awards at Toronto and Sundance, much as Slumdog Millionaire won the Toronto award as well as four other audience festival awards. Both movies leave you with such an wealth of emotion that you want to do something--like choose it for the audience award. They also have some distance from their subject that makes it easier to bear. In Slumdog, it's geographical, in Precious, it's because the movie is set in the past.

I took particular note of how the film's style encourages identification with Precious. We see her dream sequences, one of which is segued into as her eyes are fixated on the ceiling as her father rapes her. In another scene, as Precious cooks for her mother and is forced to eat even though she isn't hungry, the food she cooks is surreally disgusting and unappetizing. I liked that Precious' point-of-view was conveyed with fantasy sequences and with subtle alterations of her real life.

The oddest, and riskiest part of the movie is a monologue near the end where the movie's villain makes a plea for us to understand her. It's like hearing a defense from a skilled serial killer--she's convincing and you get to understand where she's coming from, but at the same time you're fighting not to believe her. For me this was the biggest payoff of the film. It can seem "easy" to side with Precious the whole way through, but being challenged to understand the victim's enemy and refusing to side with her is like fighting for Precious yourself.

Lionsgate will platform the release of Precious, opening it in some cities November 6th and expanding over the next two weekends. When reception of the film goes beyond its critics and film festivals, I'm curious to see if reactions will start to expand and diversify. Wisely, the studio has already brought in Perry and Winfrey, two public figures whose personal experiences remind them of Precious, to lead the discussion. Will American audiences find the movie to be as Precious as the early viewers did?