When Push Comes to Shove: Review for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Posted on July 1, 2010

The Bad: There’s nothing quite like a really depressing film to get your spirits down. But even when the main character has hopes and dreams beyond her very short grasp, that may not be enough. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire is one of the most monotonous, depressing, and boring films I have had to sit through. It’s not even worth writing about. I commend the performances from Mo’Nique  (as the abusive mother Mary Jones) and Gabby Sidibe (as Claireece Precious Jones), but the film lacks substance, style, and pace.

The Good: Mo’Nique, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress this year, plays the monster Mary Jones. Does her performance offer depth into a person—character who seems so evil and wretched and who actively physically and asexually abuses her daughter? Eh, not really. She puts on a good show, but never goes deeper than one layer beneath the surface. Good, yeah, yeah, yeah, but not by any means a performance with depth, like Anthony Hopkins as the psychotic but intriguing Hannibal Lecter (Best Actor, 1991, The Silence of the Lambs).

Conclusion: Boring, slow, awful. I at one point looked at my Blu-ray player and saw that I was only a half hour into it, I screamed, “OH MY GOD, I STILL HAVE AN HOUR AND A HALF LEFT OF THIS MOVIE!”

Grade: D