Film review: Precious

Precious. 110 minutes. Rated MA15+. Directed by Lee Daniels; Written by Geoffrey Fletcher; Based on a novel by Sapphire.

In recent years, filmmakers have been making a name for themselves by exploring subjects that our politically correct age had deemed taboo; chiefly because they were likely to cause 'offense' or be seen as prejudicial or discriminatory. Most notably, here at home, was Warwick Thornton's Samson and Delilah – a film which unsentimentally crash-tackled the issues that have been devastating indigenous communities all over the country.

Now, in a far less romantically-inclined, but equally aspirational style, comes Lee Daniel's gruelling drama of incest, welfare-dependency, teenage pregnancy and every possible form of previously unimaginable abuse. That something 'precious' actually manages to rise to the surface from this horrific scenario is a result not only of the unflinching honesty of Sapphire's original novel, but also Fletcher's honouring of it (for which he won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award) and the excruciatingly raw proximity of cinematographer Andrew Dunn's (Gosford Park) camera to the whole unrelenting saga. But it is Daniel's flawlessly imaginative and assured direction of an ensemble of astonishingly real performances that manages to isolate the essence of the human spirit – the truth of what it takes to break the cycles of a violent and destructive existence, and the hope for a brighter future.

Teenager 'Precious Jones' (the deeply effecting first timer Gabourey Sidibe) lives with her mother 'Mary' (a devastating, Best Supporting Actress Academy Award-winning Mo'Nique) in a dreary tenement in New York's Harlem district. When a well-meaning teacher recognises that Precious has a talent for mathematics, she recommends a local alternative, free-thinking school where, it is hoped, Precious may discover a way of harnessing her potential to improve her agonising life.

Precious is a determinedly unsympathetic film that, with immense power, rewards our engagement with the potently confronting issues it explores. Popstar Mariah Carey (who replaced Helen Mirren) turns in a brilliant performance as Social Worker 'Mrs Weiss', and Paula Patton brings resolve of steel to 'Ms Rain', the teacher and mentor who introduces Precious to the possibilities of an independent life.

The immense emotional clout this film ultimately wields, though, is in the gradual realisation that the essence of improving the circumstances of our lives is not necessarily about winning the fights we have with each other, but winning the battles we wage, unerringly, against ourselves. I cannot recommend this extraordinary film more highly.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspapers Group and was published in the print edition of the Geraldton Guardian.