PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE - Theatrical review

Lee Daniels' directorial debut "Shadowboxer" (2005) was so aggressively tasteless and obstinately implausible that it left some critics traumatized. A hitman/hitwoman melodrama that rapidly devolves into kitsch before collapsing into flat-out stupidity, it must have tinged expectations for Daniels' second feature film "Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire." I can't think of any other reason why this surprisingly conventional inspirational fairy tale would be described as audacious or potentially polarizing. How polarizing can a movie be if it wins audience awards at Sundance and Toronto?

Working from Geoffrey Fletcher's screen adaptation of the Sapphire novel, Lee Daniels loads the deck against his title character from the very beginning and just keeps piling it on. Precious (newcomer Gabourey Sidibe) is a sixteen year girl who is severely obese, profoundly depressed and completely disconnected from the world. Home is no refuge. Precious is repeatedly raped by her father and is now pregnant with a second child by him. Precious' mother-in-name-only Mary (Mo'Nique) reacts with jealousy rather than sympathy or any recognizable maternal instinct. Precious has stolen her man and he has given her more babies than mama ever got, so to hell with her. Almost a literal hell. It's difficult to be an even worse parent than a child molester, but Mary pulls a Mommie Dearest act that should make Christina Crawford feel positively nostalgic about her youth.

Mary constantly calls her daughter fat, ugly, worthless and stupid and Precious has taken these words to heart, retreating from the world in favor of a fantasy life where she is glamorous, has a boyfriend and is the center of attention. At times, her fantasy world also involves her being white which she associates with being pretty. But even Precious' considerable power of imagination doesn't provide a sufficient bulwark against her nightmare reality.

Potential salvation arrives when Precious is steered towards an "alternative school" where she meets Ms. Blu Rain (Paula Patton) a teacher so patient and empathetic you may wonder if she too is one of Precious' fantasy constructs. Here the film marks familiar territory. Precious' classmates are a collection of "troubled" young women each with their own problematic but ultimately endearing personality quirks, producing many "feel good" comedic moments. With the close mentoring of Ms. Rain, Precious finally risks opening up and begins to write in her daily journal which she shares with both her teacher and her class, though never with mom.

There are more obstacles in the way for Precious, some so overwhelming the film ventures into the Story of Job territory recently covered by the Coen Brothers in "A Serious Man." But for all the ordeals Precious endures the film always promises hope. Precious' road to redemption begins the minute she walks into Ms. Rain's class and there is no point where we fear she'll go astray. Perhaps this is an expression of Daniels' protective feelings towards his abused main character but it limits the film's ability to challenge the audience. It is safely harrowing, a trait it shares with last year's indie darling "Slumdog Millionaire."

As Daniels ratchets up the melodrama, much of which involves Mary's monster mom getting crazier and meaner by the second, "Precious" borders on the kitsch of "Shadowboxer" but it's anchored by the stolid performance of Ms. Sidibe who is actually ten years older than her character. While Mary is a cartoon, Precious is firmly grounded in reality (even when living in fantasy) and Ms. Sidibe conveys a remarkable range of emotion with modest modulations in tone of voice and facial expression.

As also shown in "Shadowboxer," Daniels has an unfortunate fondness for gaudy montage sequences so poorly conceived and assembled they feel like a high school student's attempt to imitate Nicolas Roeg. They're so bad, sometimes so damned cheesy, they nearly derail the movie but fortunately Ms. Sidibe is always there to put things back on track. Daniels also likes to have his heroines go into labor at decidedly inconvenient times. In "Shadowboxer" a woman's water breaks just as hitwoman Helen Mirren is about to shoot her (that's one of the more subtle moments in the movie.) Here the same thing happens to Precious just as she's about to read her new story to the class. This time though the situation is played for gentle humor, and her hospital trip leads her to meet a hunky and compassionate male nurse (Lenny Kravitz) who becomes another protector.

Mo'Nique maintains the vile one-note performance she is asked for with panache until a final scene in which she is histrionic enough to earn praise from people who think that good acting means lots of acting. Patton seems a bit too good to be true as the latest iteration of the inspirational inner city teacher but her compassion is convincing. Mariah Carey is virtually unrecognizable in a small but memorable role as a welfare counselor and has now safely put "Glitter" in the rearview mirror.

It's fair to question how plausible it is for Precious to suddenly come across so many supportive (if not always clued-in) characters after suffering such horrible abuse and neglect all her life, but the film's sense of optimism isn't a cheap fabrication. Gabourey Sidibe is the main reason the story feels authentic. Her confident, restrained performance is the necessary counterbalance to Daniels' occasional tacky sensibility (he must have designed the official website too.) A shriller, more mannered actress may have tilted this into camp. Sidibe doesn't allow that to happen.

If you're wondering about the unwieldy title, when the film won at Sundance, it played under the title "Push." When a sci-fi non-thriller with the same title opened earlier this year, the title had to be changed.