I struggled to find a properly descriptive title for this week’s column and failed miserably. I’m actually referring to movies that beat up the main character so badly, for so long, in such depressing detail, that while the performances in the film may be extraordinary, one wonders if such subject matter could be portrayed any other way.

I’m thinking about the movie Precious, in which young Gabbie Siddibe plays the title character, and said character is put through the wringer multiple times, hung out on the clothesline, beaten until dry, then chucked back into the choppy water again. Her character is the victim of multiple devils, including her drug-addicted hell-bitch of a mother, portrayed with teeth-gnashing intensity by comedian Mo’Nique, and multiple incidents of incest (and pregnancies). It is that last bit that, while horrific on its own, ultimately throws down the final insult to Precious and her harrowing life. I won’t spoil the plot any farther, but it should suffice to say that there is no tapping of ruby slippers at the end to carry her back to safe shores.

While not as graphic and painful, but equally depressing, Will Smith’s turn in The Pursuit of Happyness totally left me puzzled. There are people who swear up and down and sideways that this is a great movie, and I’ll admit that Smith as the got-it-down wise guy is nowhere to be found on the screen. His performance presents a complete character and yet, again, considering how much foot gets buried in his hindquarters in the story, you’d have to be a pretty rotten actor not to be able to get the audience to sympathize. It’s based on the true story of Chris Gardner, who lost his wife under the strain of a poor career choice. When she left, he fought to keep, and remain with, his young son. (more…)