Latest screening: Precious

A very good film with a stunning central performance (and some excellent supporting ones too) Precious could well be the "little" movie that makes it big this awards season. It seems almost certain that newcomer Gabourey Sidibe will be nominated for Best Actress - the performance demands it - and also that Mo'Nique will pick up a Best Supporting Actress nod (she's currently considered the favourite, though i'm still giving it to Julianne Moore for A Single Man), but this could easily find itself seriously conpeting in Adapted Screenplay, Director and even Picture categories.

It's not an easy film but curiously it stands out this year in a lighter-weight line-up amongst the strongest contenders. Even those that are dramatic (like A Single Man) don't feel so gruelling, like last year's line-up where even the so called "feel good" film was the often tough going Slumdog Millionaire!

Precious tackles the abuse, both physical and mental, heaped upon an teenager who when given an opportunity in life will try her hardest to improve her situation but approaches most situations with a resigned gloom and a hard attitude because that is what she needs to survive. The film doesn't pull its punches either (well, my understanding of the what's in the book suggests it does a little but then it would likely be unwatchable). There are several brutal scenes that go beyond discomfort for the audience. So not a Sunday-afternoon crowd pleaser then, but a must-see none the less.

Gabourey Sidibe, in her first film, is simply tremendous as Precious. It could be tempting (since it is her first role and so viewers can't be sure) to think, oh well she knows it, she is it, it's not acting it's casting. Having been to a Q&A screening let me assure you it is acting of the best calibre. Sidibe in person is a sunny, smart girl with little seeming in common with the on-screen character. That she so inhabits the character with no training demonstrates how good a performance this is.

Much has been made of Mo'Nique's role as the abusive mother, and she is impressive. But i can't help feeling firstly that this is partly that people expected her casting is such a role and such a film to be stunt-casting (as with the cast's fellow players Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz) and were expecting her to be all wrong in the role. That she is so good (as is Carey for that matter, though Kravitz, while fine, has little to do) almost makes the performance seem even better. Secondly this is one of those gift roles. A superbly written monster. You feel the character created in the writing, the set-ups and shocking dialogue the script provides. I take little away from Mo'Nique, she does deliver the goods, but i feel this is one of those brilliantly written roles that a dozen actresses could have done just as well without missing a beat - much like Viola Davis' role in Doubt last year; a barn-storming scene-stealer that stays with you after the film, but really is it completely the performance or is it mostly the character?

Sidibe brings so much to her role she feels irreplacable. In comparison to Mo'Nique my vote for Supporting Actress this year (Julianne Moore in A Single Man) brings such a depth of character you can palpably feel beyond what's being presented you get a fully formed character that lives and breathes beyond her scenes and, indeed, beyond the story. Mo'Nique is giving her all to what is on the page, there's no doubt, but i get no sense of anything more. Of course the Oscars love a big shouty, unsubtle performance and favour them over delicacy and true character embodiment year after year so Moore will probably lose out (again!) but she shouldn't.

Paula Preston adds some much needed light to the film. She has little to really do beyond empathise and try to help Precious but once she is in the film it becomes more bearable. It doesn't hurt either that Preston much have a pretty good claim on "world's most beautiful woman", she simply is stunning.

Lee Daniels has delivered a thought-provoking and often harrowing film but it goes beyond strong performances and a tough story, Precious is a genuinely compelling film to watch. So often these kinds of films are lost behind a single strong performance (Monster) or get bogged down in their world (A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints) or feel like stunt-casting for a famous face known for alternate fare (Havoc), or are simply too full on to be really watchable (Johnny Mad Dog) - films are to some degree entertainment after all - but Precious, while often difficult to watch, is not a film you regret watching, or feel you wouldn't watch again, and what stays with you from it is so much more than the gruelling abuse episodes.

Precious is every bit as good as last year's Slumdog Millionaire (i would say easily better) and would deserve a Best Picture slot even if we were still done to 5 not 10. The test will be if Daniels can make the five directors. On the strength of what i've seen so far (most everything significant except Nine and Invictus) he deserves it.