A Precious Moment

Saw sneak peak of "Precious" last night. I have never seen anything
so soul crushing and life affirming. "Precious" is like the maturation
of the whole Tyler Perry oeuvre. Director Lee Daniels exhibits a
sure, confident hand, something that can be glimpsed but not fully
grasped in his first directorial feature, Shadowboxer. In fact, as a
producer, Daniels has an amazing body of work: Monster's Ball
(argue if you will, but it won Ms. Halle Berry a best actress Oscar),The Woodsman (Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick do amazing
work in this film), Shadowboxer (a tight ensemble piece with Cuba
Gooding, Jr., Helen Mirren, Joseph Gorden-Levitt and Mo'Nique)
and now, his magnum opus, Precious.

It is a dark, dark place where Daniels works, deep in the heart of
Tyler Perryville. But where Mr. Perry wrings slapstick and farce
out of his monsters, Daniels mines redemption, recognition and
hope. In many ways, Monster’s Ball and Precious are variations
of the same theme featuring, as they do, isolated and financially
stressed mothers who take out their frustrations on their obese
children with gut-wrenching results. One wonders what Mr.
Daniels might have wrought if he had directed Monster’s Ball in
addition to producing it for there are none of the somewhat off-
putting elements of Berry’s performance to be found in Precious’
tight ensemble cast.

Daniels’ sure hand can be seen in the many fine, even, unadorned
performances (Gabourey Sidibe’s serendipitously sure-footed
performance is another thing altogether – I have nothing to compare
it to). It is always interesting when sitcom stars (Mo’Nique, Shepherd), who
are often yoked to shrill one-note emoting, are allowed to explore the upper
ranges of their talent. It is equally fascinating to see rock stars (Carey,
Kravitz), stripped of their war paint, giving unvarnished and unaffected
performances. Anybody who saw Carey’s blackboard screeching perfor-
mance in Glitter can see what a difference Daniels guiding hand can make.

In my humble opinion, Les Daniels is the first black director worthy
of an Academy Award. Precious is an amazing achievement.

(On a personal note: it was a pleasure to see actress Kimberly
Russell, an alumnae of Head of the Class who doesn’t have an acting
credit since 2002, at work in this film).

~rave!