There is an old joke in philosophy circles about Hegel, which I will sum up by
saying that many consider him famous for being famous. In today’s society, we’re
all familiar with people who are famous for being famous. Without a truly
exceptional talent, they generally have a little something to recommend about
them (even if it is only their ability to make you hate them so much you’ll tune
in), but overall their resume actually lists “famous,” as their mode of
employment.
If we play with this idea a bit, Hegel is such a philosopher. Famous largely by
way of the fact that people talk about him, and despite the fact that no one
understands anything he said, or actually attempts to support his views. He
“lives” in a world in which his views have the built-in protection against
negative reaction of being utterly incomprehensible to the best of minds. He is
“good,” by virtue of no one saying he’s “bad,” which is the case simply because,
“How can you say he’s ‘bad’?” (I may stretch the facts there a bit).
With the smallest of modifications, Precious is such a movie.
The eponymous heroine is a 17 year-old, overweight, illiterate girl living in
Harlem, and doing surprisingly well in school as far as her report card will
tell the tale. Pregnant for the second time, both children the result of being
raped by her father, Precious is made to go to an alternative school. Her
mother, who beats the hell out of her, blames her for her father’s
indiscretions, calls her stupid and useless, and sits on her ass all day
collecting welfare, doesn’t like the idea of Precious going to any school where
she might actually learn something. Uppity bitch.
If you’re bored of this story already, there’s a good reason… it isn’t one.
There are many things we might describe as “the things that happen,” in
Precious, but there is very little to the general claim that the thing is even a
movie at all, much less a good or bad one. Really a kind of commercial for the
plight of the sorely disadvantaged in America, Precious never comes across as a
character of interest so much as an amalgam of horrors. There isn’t really
anything to Precious, except her situation, and the movie has nothing to say
about either beyond, “Look!”
There is some fine acting in the ensemble, perhaps best is Mo’Nique (though I
have always found it difficult to rave about people portraying lunatic bitches,
because I’m not convinced it’s that difficult), but for the most part the movie
has two forms of built-in protections from negative reaction, and is thus able
to become almost instantly famous for being famous, even if the vast majority of
positive quotes you’ll find are empty platitudes. One word quotes on the
brilliance of this film are legion.
First, the film dodges serious depth of analysis simply by virtue of a great
many people feeling quite comfortable avoiding political suicide. A related
second is the general attitude adopted toward many such films, for example the
passable, but not particularly interesting Schindler’s List, which gained much
of its fame when people professed to love it upon merely hearing that there was
a 195-minute film on the holocaust directed by Steven Spielberg. Was there a
real dialog about the actual merits of Schindler’s List? Not really. May as well
just show up to work with your swastika on and have done, or wave your 1-iron at
the lightning storm yelling, “There is no God!” Some things are just not clever
to say.
So it is with Precious, a film that you could easily make about a rich, white
guy, and however solid the acting and direction, and no matter how much you
pleaded with the audience that, “Hey. I’m just saying, this is what these
people’s lives are like,” they’d still smack you around on their way out of the
theater. And, if it isn’t a film in the once case, it isn’t a film in the other.
A belabored, boring, heavy-handed account of a life that becomes uninteresting
by way of all-inclusiveness, Precious has no focus, real ability to engage, or
anything like a story, and only comes to a kind of conclusion apparently based
on the happy accident of test screenings being less than positive when the
screen randomly goes dark after a certain amount of time passed.
Sadly, there is no point or purpose to the film whatsoever, except insofar as
the idea that you will hopefully have some knowledge when it’s over, but if you
didn’t have that knowledge before, it’s a laughable theory that you would have
it now.
