Precious, like most “heavy” art-house films, received a limited release.  If you’re not in a major city or very near to one, you likely won’t even get a chance to see it until it hits video.  I had to drive 45 minutes to see it in Hartford.  Ironically, the single screen in a sixty-mile radius that’s showing it isn’t an art-house theater at all; it’s a theater bordering on the hood.  This is an appropriate fact, given the subject matter of Precious.  It’s a no-holds-barred look at the life of an abused teenager living in Harlem.  She’s 16, barely literate, a hundred or more pounds overweight, and is pregnant with her second child.

Later, after the film was over, I decided to stick my head into this season’s other film about racial/socio-economic disadvantage - The Blind Side.  Unlike Precious, which features an all-black cast and is set entirely in the poverty-stricken neighborhoods of Harlem, The Blind Side features a mostly-white cast and is set in a posh suburb of Tennessee.  Sure, it’s about a black kid, but one who spends most of the film in a white world.  Precious is trapped in her world of cyclical poverty, abuse and rape. 

While Precious, showing on a single screen serving all of northern Connecticut and western Massachusetts, had sold only a few seats, The Blind Side, showing on probably forty screens in the same area, was sold out.  One can’t help but ask “why.”  The answer is a simple one.  White Americans don’t want to see the real face of poverty and a portrait of racism still very much alive.  They want to see the Forrest Gump version, where everything goes all right and that poor black boy gets adopted by that wealthy white family and gets a contract to play pro football and become a millionaire.  Where Precious tells the story of millions, The Blind Side tells the story of one - and America prefers the story of the one.

Despite this sad, innately racist state of our country’s viewership, Precious is a cinematic masterpiece that can’t be denied.  There hasn’t been much in 2009 as far as Oscar contenders, but Lee Daniels has barged through the gates and commandeered a film destined to sweep nomination and hopefully many of the trophies of the coming awards season.  Daniels has made a career of telling difficult stories with truth and integrity. He produced the 2001 sensation that won Halle Barry her Oscar, Monster’s Ball, as well as 2004’s brilliantly-crafted The Woodsman.  With Precious, he proves he can direct as well.  His direction is heavy when called for (often to act as relief for the audience from the overbearing weight of what’s being witnessed), and subtle and true when the truth says it all.

Geoffrey Fletcher’s screenplay adaptation of the novel by Sapphire is tight and well-structured.  Cinematographers Andrew Dunn and Darren Lew bring the image to life beautifully, and editor Joe Klotz seamlessly performs some very difficult edits as camera angles move between wide shots and extreme close-ups through windows. 

While Mo’Nique’s convincing performance of the abusive mother seems to be stealing all the press, Gabourey Sidibe’s subtle and affecting portrayal of the title character is the true star.  With the slightest of shifts of her eyes, Sidibe portrays so much of the pain and confusion that Precious feels.  The supporting cast, including small, well-played roles by Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, is equally strong.  Xosha Roquemore turns in a particularly charming, stand-out performance as Joann, one of Precious’ classmates at her alternative school.

Don’t miss this film.  It won’t be easy to watch, but some stories need to be faced head-on, acknowledged and felt - even if that means leaving your comfort zone...