Sidibe doesn’t “portray” a character as much as embody her. She mumbles, reluctantly makes eye contact, displays little expression and even less vocal dexterity. But Sidibe is more than an unfamiliar face. Harking back to the tradition of neorealist filmmakers like Vittorio De Sica (whose film Two Women is knowingly snippetted in Precious), Daniels cast an unknown with no professional acting experience. This will certainly be the case with Daniels’s visualization of the lead character of Sapphire’s novel-Claireece Precious Jones, who is portrayed (unforgettably) by Gabourey Sidibe.

Staring at the written word, you will see the screen adaptation. If the film is a major success, the cinematic visualization may become so dominant that the reader of the novel will lose the capacity to imagine the story. They will never fully appreciate what was lost, gained, or rearranged, and they will never grasp where the narration has become dialogue or monologue. The very title of Lee Daniels’s film Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire points viewers toward the original novel, but the great majority of viewers will never take the opportunity to compare film and text. But today-given the power of film, publicity, and celebrity-the cinematic shadow often takes precedence. “In the beginning was not the shadow, but the act.” Ralph Ellison’s cause and effect dictum is applicable to any cinematic adaptation of a literary work: Before there was the movie, there was the book.

Wellington Reviews Precious Darryl Lorenzo Wellington ▪ March 8, 2010

The book push precious