Product Description
-------------------
Set in Harlem in 1987, it is the story of Claireece
“Precious” Jones, a sixteen-year-old African-American girl born
into a life no one would want. She’s pregnant for the second time
by her absent her; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her
mother, a poisonously angry woman who abuses her emotionally and
physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached
the ninth grade with good marks and an awful secret: she can
neither read nor write. Precious may sometimes be down, but she
is never out. Beneath her impassive expression is a watchful,
curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that
other possibilities exist for her. Threatened with expulsion,
Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative
school, Each One/Teach One. Precious doesn’t know the meaning of
“alternative,” but her instincts tell her this is the chance she
has been waiting for. In the literacy workshop taught by the
patient yet firm Ms. Rain, Precious begins a journey that
.com
----
Not every movie can survive the kind of hype--multiple
awards at Sundance and other festivals, rapturous reviews,
nominated for six Academy Awards and winner of two, for Best
Supporting Actress and Best Screenplay--that greeted the release
of Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire, but this
extraordinary piece of work is more than up to the task. What's
particularly notable about the film's success and accl is that
in the beginning, at least, it presents one of the grimmest
scenarios imaginable. The scene is Harlem, New York, in 1987.
Teenager Clarisse Precious Jones (played by newcomer Gabourey
Sibide in an absolutely fearless performance) is dirt poor,
morbidly obese, semiliterate, and pregnant for the second
time--both courtesy of her own her (the first baby was born
with Down syndrome). Her home life is several levels below Hell,
as her bitter, vengeful welfare mother, Mary (Mo'Nique, in a role
that has generated legitimate O® buzz), abuses her both
physically and otherwise (telling Precious she should have
aborted her is only the worst of a relentless flood of insults
and vitriol). Yet somehow, the young woman still has hopes and
dreams (depicted in a series of delightful fantasy sequences).
She enrolls in an alternative school, where a young teacher
(Paula Patton) takes her under her wing and even into her home,
and visits a social worker (an excellent Mariah Carey; fellow pop
star Lenny Kravitz is also effective as a male nurse) who further
helps bring Precious out of the darkness. Incredibly, Precious's
circumstances deteriorate even more before showing the slightest
sign of improvement, and a climactic confrontation with her
mother is one of the more wrenching scenes in recent memory. But
against all odds, director Lee Daniels, screenwriter Geoffrey
Fletcher (working from Sapphire's novel), and especially the
wondrously affecting Sibide have managed to make Precious a film
that will lift the viewer far higher up that one might ever have
thought possible. --Sam Graham