REVIEW: Pointless 'Precious' Should Have Been Titled 'Better Off Dead'

A few solid performances are not enough to overcome a story that can only be described as porn for people who confuse wallowing in depravity with some kind of important existential statement about life, or worse, art. There’s no point to “Precious.” There might have been, but then from out of nowhere this brutally unsentimental drama serves up one last turning point (I won’t reveal), one final slap in the face of an audience who dared believe an emotional investment into a horribly abused, illiterate, obese teenage girl might actually pay off with something meaningful.

What do you expect from a story where a baby with Down’s Syndrome is named Mongo?

Though sixteen years of age, Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) is still in middle school but not for long. After it’s discovered she’s pregnant for the second time after being raped by the same father who impregnated her the first time, school policy demands she drop out. Thankfully Dad’s no longer in the picture, but there’s still Mom (Mo’Nique) to deal with, a vicious woman willing to do anything to keep her daughter from realizing any amount of happiness, much less her hopes and dreams.

Unfortunately, Precious’ hopes and dreams are as stunted as her reading scores. In-between bouts of suffering, she fantasizes about being worshipped as a celebrity. I’m not sure the film realizes just how shallow and sad this dream is, but I digress. A ray of light arrives in the form of an invitation to an alternative school for young women of similar circumstance. From here Precious finds a kind of salvation in that which only Hollywood believes there’s salvation: Gay school teachers, social workers, public education and pretty much everything else on the Big Daddy Government check-off list.

Other than life in 1980’s Harlem being awful for a black girl ironically named Precious, there’s nothing to see here other than explicit scenes of a father raping his daughter, and the physical, mental, verbal and sexual abuse heaped on this same girl (and the audience) by her welfare-addicted mother in scene after unrelenting scene.

“Requiem for a Dream” is hard to watch, but at least there’s a point (and Keith David); it’s a cautionary tale. “21 Grams” is hard to watch, but at least there’s a theme: forgiveness. Sure, Precious tries to break free of her abuse, and with the help of her teacher (Paula Patton) and social worker (an unrecognizable but superb Mariah Carey), she’s on the right track until that one last piano’s dropped on her head.

The hostility this character’s creators hold for her permeates every frame, and when she steals a full bucket of fried chicken, eats the whole thing on her way to school and then spends a few minutes walking around with grease and chicken bits all over her face you have to wonder why they didn’t name the movie “Better Off Dead.”

There are moments of genuine power. Mo’Nique’s last scene is a true piece of bravura acting, the setting of time and place in great detail – down to the gross-out hairs on a plate of pigs feet – is spot on, and the soundtrack is one of the best you’ll hear all year. And while there are many movies that fall under the category of difficult to watch, where you say, “Well, it was worth seeing once,” that’s simply not true for this one. “Precious” gives you nothing to take home with you … other than images best left forgotten.

Directed by Lee Daniels and presented (for some reason) by Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, the talent behind “Precious”is not in question. Just the point of making it.