filmland / By North Coast Journal Staff

Wonder in Underland

As you’ve likely heard by now, this film, set in late-’80s Harlem, delves into some bleak, bleak places: Claireece “Precious” Jones (newcomer Gabourey Sidibe) is 16, illiterate, morbidly obese and pregnant with her second child — both the result of rape by her own father. While absorbing every form of abuse imaginable from her monstrous mother, plus neglect and ridicule from classmates and strangers on the street, Precious somehow maintains a vibrant, MTV-fueled fantasy world of fame, high fashion and flashing cameras (much like Sidibe at the Oscars, come to think of it). When the principal at her school arranges for Precious to attend an alternative high school, she meets a compassionate schoolteacher (Paula Patton) who finally shows Precious some hope and kindness. Soon, Precious begins to see her life as her own, which is as frightening as it is liberating.

Director Lee Daniels manages to portray misery convincingly — viscerally, even — without making you feel miserable (at least, not for too long). You can practically smell the stench in the Jones’ squalid apartment (shot in grease-orange hues by cinematographer Andrew Dunn), and you may feel momentarily ill in certain scenes, like when Precious’ mom describes the origin of her daughter’s sexual abuse to an overwhelmed social worker (Mariah Carey!). This is powerfully unpleasant stuff, made all the more so for its gritty believability. But throughout, Daniels throws in music, humor and flashy editing in counter-intuitive, even daring ways. Done poorly, this type of kinetic film-making can be abrasive, but Daniels pulls it off, masterfully cutting the anguish with hints of joy.

Precious is provocative, audacious (Lenny Kravitz as a nurse?!) and melodramatic — and it all comes together beautifully thanks to the evident passion of everyone involved. Mo’Nique makes her character truly repellent while somehow allowing her some humanity. Sidibe shows depth and composure. Even Carey and Kravitz are good. Ultimately, Precious is as bold and brave as its title character. Recommended. Rated R for child abuse including sexual assault (though it’s not graphic) and pervasive language. 110m. At the Broadway.

— Ryan Burns

ALICE IN WONDERLAND: At the end of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland we’re told that the film is based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. Well, just barely. Screenwriter Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King) uses the characters and the loose framework from Carroll’s classic nonsense tales, but the plot comes from somewhere else entirely. Director Tim Burton’s fantastical Wonderland is renamed Underland, and it’s a dark, sinister place, where Alice gets caught up in a contrived narrative that has little to do with Carroll’s fanciful stories.

We first meet Alice as a young girl troubled by a recurring dream, but we soon fast-forward to a 19-year-old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) facing adulthood with trepidations. When she finally falls into the rabbit-hole, she embarks on a Joseph Conrad-style hero’s quest (with touches of Wizard of Oz) through a 3-D CGI world that alternates between talking flowers and glowing mushrooms and a scorched-earth landscape with a Disney-esque castle surrounded by a bloody moat where severed heads float.

Alice encounters some familiar characters on her journey — The Hatter (a top-billed, over-the-top Johnny Depp), Tweedledum and Tweedledee (with Matt Lucas’ face) and a wispy Cheshire Cat (voiced by Stephen Fry) — who become her allies as she finds herself in the middle of a good v. evil power struggle. It seems the nasty Red Queen (a distorted Helena Bonham Carter, in fine form) and her Knave of Hearts (a sinister Crispin Glover) have taken control of Underland from the Red Queen’s sister, the frothy White Queen (Anne Hathaway), whose wholesome world seems to be spun from cotton candy.

Spoiler alert: Alice’s destiny is foretold on a prophetic scroll that shows her, in Joan of Arc/shining knight drag, slaying the fearsome Jabberwocky (voiced by Christopher Lee). To do so, she must sneak into the Red Queen’s castle and find the Vorpal Blade, a magic sword. She gets the sword and slays the dragon as armies clash in the action-packed war-torn third act. If all this is starting to sound like something from a role-playing videogame, it’s no mistake — there’s already one for Nintendo Wii.

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