Just a girl

PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL "PUSH" BY SAPPHIRE. AN EDUCATION. Let me say first that I wrote this months ago when both of these movies were fresh on my mind but neglected to edit/link it up so it has sat there waiting. Until now. I've updated it slightly but glad that it comes from when both were fresh on my mind.

So both of these movies are about 16-year-old girls learning what it means to become a woman and evaluate their education. Both of these movies follow some of the general aspects of the coming-of-age movie -- the inspiring teacher, the lesson learned at the end, etc. It is quite odd that these two movies happen to come out in the same year at Sundance as they present two sides of the coin: Precious (trailer) is about a girl trying to escape being brought down in the slums of Harlem while An Education (trailer) follows a girl being yanked up into the good life of London and Paris a bit too early. I'm not quite sure how to connect the two films too much except in that they are, taken together, an example of how powerful the medium of film can be to transform what could be a standard story -- the archetypal coming-of-age -- into two completely different experiences. Other than that, I'll just have to write about the movies.

So I'll start with An Education, since that is the one you have not seen. I would say its worth catching sometime, if anything for the performance of Carey Mulligan in the lead role. My guess is she could become a bit of a big name in a few years as this movie shows some promising acting ability -- also she's quite pretty and that's always important in Hollywood. The role she plays is that of Jenny, a 16-year-old in 1961 with aspirations of attending Oxford and by doing so escape from the middle-class suburbia of her childhood. Although she is quite smart, she often drops French phrases, listens to greatest-hits albums, and gushes over art as if she is a lifelong appreciator. So when charming and fashionable David (a suave-looking Peter Sarsgaard) shows up and offers her a taste of the good life, she leaps right in even though she seems at least as clever as the audience and should realize something's not right. The screenplay (by novelist Nick Hornby based on Lynn Barber's memoir) delicately dances the line between her maturity and her childish musings without drawing a line between the two. If the first three-quarters are better than the ending, it still remains a well-crafted and fantastically acted movie. With some time to think on it, I kind of see it as not being particularly memorable except that years from now we might think of that movie as Mulligan's big debut to the big time. Plus she could pull an upset and outflank Sandra Bullock for the Oscar and make my night.

And then there's Precious. I was a bit nervous about this moving going in. Not because I was buying into the backlash (more later), but my concern was that the subject matter gaining it approval more so than the filmmaking. This also came from the choice of actors from the worlds of comedy and music that were getting such high praise -- I was worried it was being graded on a curve and I would end up disappointed. So I can say now that is not the case. Instead I must say this is truly a triumph for Lee Daniels in only his second movie as a director. There are a lot of ways that this movie could have gone wrong -- that it could have become the movie I feared (cough, Crash). But Daniels avoids nearly all of them to make a movie that is honest and realistic in its plot without sacrificing drama or emotion.

Never in the movie does it try to make Precious something that she is not. It could have been easy to make her extremely smart or artistic or possessing of some other skill that would allowed for an uplifting ending where she goes to college or makes it on a famous stage. The movie does not take this easy way out and presents Precious as no more than what she is: an obese, 16-year-old, pregnant, illiterate, black girl. What makes her the hero of this movie is not that she possesses anything special, but just that she is a human and no person -- even those without any other skills worth making a movie about -- deserves the poverty or abuse Precious suffers. Conversely the fact that she is poor, pregnant, the daughter of a "welfare queen," and black make her life no less interesting and worthy of having her story told. It just means that her life will never reach the levels Jenny glimpses, or even what she is trying desperately to escape. Some of my favorite parts of the movie are when we are reminded -- despite Precious' stony demeanor and adult challenges -- that she is just a girl. There are dream moments when she escapes from her situation by imaging herself at a photo shoot or film premier where Gabourney Sibide (a radiant actress who earned her Oscar nod and deserves a strong future) becomes a completely different person and we see a glimpse of who Precious could be. But the moment that stuck with me the most is a simple beat when she puts a hairband on her head, for just a little bit more femininity. It's a great, subtle moment and exemplifies for me how Daniels has much more faith in his audience than most filmmakers who delve into subjects of abuse or race.

Where Daniels also succeeded is in the performances he brings out in his actors. Sure its possible that he pulled out award-worthy turns from women who had just been overlooked. But that would discount the ability of a talented director to help an actor bring out a quality performance. In an interview for a New York Times Magazine cover story on Precious, Daniels talks about working with Halle Berry in Monster's Ball, which he produced, and helping her dvelop that performance. I do not discount any of the actresses' work; I think Daniels just did a good job of finding and bringing out talent. The trailers do not give credit to the work of Sibide, whose Precious is much more nuanced than I was expecting. She certainly is able to portray the mask her character puts up and the emotion when it cracks, but also the more delicate task of keeping her a child and presenting the dream sequences as still the same person, but an idolized version of herself. Mariah Carey, otherwise known best in film for the bomb Glitter, turns in a wholly professional effort (from a role originally intended for Helen Mirren!) as a social worker that does not for one moment seem like a singer trying to act. Certainly the most surprising is Mo'Nique playing a mother incongruously named Mary. In her first scene she masterfully builds up into a furvor that makes a viewers jaw drop and continues this through most of the movie. Much has been written about how Carey appears without makeup, but Mo'Nique is scrubbed of any vanity and allows herself to be filmed looking like her character, not an actress. Although there are hints at more than just the mostrous aspects of her personality, her final scene takes one's breath away. Again it would have been easy to try and easilly redeem her or have her destroyed, but this movie does not take the easy way out and neither does Mo'Nique. At times she is lying and at times she is being honest. At times she is sympathetic and at times a monster. What's phenomenal about this scene is that the viewer -- and the characters -- are not sure where the distinctions lie and the ambiguity she maintains, even in an emotional scene, creates a single scene that could win her an Oscar.

The movie has been all but locked out of the Oscars, aside from Mo'Nique, because of a lot of criticism and backlash to which it has fallen victim. There are some who think the movie heavy-handed, and I could imagine that something with as difficult a subject matter could get that label, but it fails to acknowledge the subtlety with which Daniels tells his story. What I find less acceptance for is the complaint that it is racist or otherwise a bad movie for the black community. Courtland Milloy wrote in the Washington Post: "In Precious, [executive producers] Oprah and [Tyler] Perry have helped serve up a film of prurient interest that has about as much redeeming social value as a porn flick." Now that it a bit overboard. At the beginning of the movie, I was a bit uncomfortable with Mary and found myself worrying about the perpetuation of the generally false welfare-queen stereotype. There have been horrible parents of many races in many movies, however, and to say that stories about black people should avoid this area falsely assumes black people need some sort of protection and also defeats the whole purpose of the movie, which is to show that even in the worst of situation, a girl can survive. This movie should survive and not have to have a happy ending as some have suggested in order to make us all feel better. We have to learn to feel better despite how horrible life can be and that is the message Daniels is trying to give us.

As different as these movies are, I find my processing of both of them was made better by seeing both. It is not a qualitative comparison of the two, but a simple look at how different an experience can be and how powerful film can be in telling them. As I mentioned, from the long view they are a similar movie but when one gets closer -- even to a medium view -- it becomes apparent that there is so much difference and that the process of growing up can never be the same. The world is just too complicated.