From Description:

From Amazon.com:

Not every movie can survive the kind of hype--multiple awards at Sundance and other festivals, rapturous reviews, the promise of Oscars to come--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 acclaim 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 father (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 Oscar® 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

Special features: Audio commentary with director Lee Daniels; "From Push to Precious" featurette; "A Precious ensemble" featurette; "Oprah and Tyler: a project of passion" featurette; a conversation with Author Sapphire and director Lee Daniels; deleted scene: the incest survivor meeting; audition: Gabourey Sidibe; "Reflections on Precious" featurette.

Director, Lee Daniels.

Gabourey Sidibe, Paula Patton, Lenny Kravitz, Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey.

Precious Jones, an inner-city high school girl, is illiterate, overweight, and pregnant...again. Naive and abused, Precious responds to a glimmer of hope when a door is opened by an alternative school teacher. She is faced with the choice to follow opportunity and test her own boundaries.

"****!"--Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"The best film of 2009."--Rolling Stone

"Genuinely and irresistibly inspirational."--Wall Street Journal

"...the most painful, poetic and improbably beautiful film of the year."--Washington Post

MPAA rating: R.

DVD.

English audio; English, Spanish subtitles.

Closed-captioned.

This means simply that, no matter how hard one tries to delve into the inner workings of another person's mind, it will ultimately prove itself to be a naively valiant but futile effort. In this movie, a girl who has all the makings of a borderline personality or DID patient, in her odd little oblivion, retreats on occasion to a fantasy land, where she can be a singer, loved by everyone surrounding her, and yet has the ego strength to persevere. This is certainly admirable in its own way. Precious's mother can very easily be vilified, and in the end may have evoked sympathy from some people; I can say that the nice little bow they wrapped around her story to explain why she turned into such a feral creature is only the tip of the sunken ship. Trying to understand it simply from that perspective, I would say that yes, there are Oedipal undertones, there was a defended regression and a concretization of symbolic struggles the mother was clearly facing; in attacking her daughter she was attacking vulnerability, devaluing her was her way of not only identifying with whatever nameless aggressor she had in the past, but it was also a way of self-injury by identifying with the vulnerable, frail individual her daughter represented. Not much to say about the disdain shown to the mentally challenged child Precious bred, nor about Mariah Carey's inevitably stereotyped role as a bleeding heart who eventually swallowed the mother's primitive push towards becoming another rejecting external object. Ugh... I think they wanted people to empathize with how this girl overcame the odds to push forth with her life, despite all these horrid adversities facing her. That works too, but we can't understand her world any better than we can the mother's, and it says something of the viewers' ability to withstand realities that go against their own moral code without bringing out projections of their own. It's hard to swallow such egregiously vicious personalities without responding with an equal dose of aggression. But movies are interpretation, and mine is just one more amongst 6 billion.

I had high hopes for Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire after seeing the hype and awards it received. Indeed, I did think the acting was great, and appreciate the innovative use of camera technique. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the overall product. <br /> <br />Part of the problem is that the film simply piles a lot of depressing twists and turns without any variation or break. I don't want to sound hard-hearted here - I understand that some people unfortunately do find themselves in such depressing situations. However, even movies that focus on hardship usually have some variation in the amount of depression plot twists they throw at the audience. For example, some movies show a character's hardship, but then end with her triumphant redemption. Other movies chose to intersperse moments of levity throughout the movie so viewers don't become dulled to the character's pain. I think The Pursuit of Happyness (Widescreen Edition) does this beautifully (I almost did cry for that one). This is CRUCIAL because in order for audiences to sympathize with a character, they have to like that character first. <br /> <br />Precious does none of that. Instead, it feels like the director is trying desperately to make his audience tear up by throwing one misery after another, without ever giving us a reason to like Precious herself. While I felt sorry for her plight, she also comes across as devoid of common sense and rude. She calls her child with Down Syndrome "mongoloid" (a racist term for Asians). Her greatest joy seems to be stealing a bucket of fried chicken. Meanwhile I never found any inner strength or inspiration in her that made me really want to root for her. Without that emotional anchor, I found myself becoming overwhelmed and ultimately desensitized to what she was experiencing. By the end of Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire, rather than cry, I felt like, "oh, so that's how the directors managed to make her life more miserable..." <br /> <br />There were a few times when the movie tries to lighten up, but these fail. For example, the scenes when she fantasizes about becoming a star were just way too long, and the style jarred too much with the rest of the film. Precious playing with her newborn baby in the pool and dunking him in the water was (I think) intended to be a moment of joy, but all I could help thinking was that this girl should not be allowed to keep the baby! Likewise, the ending doesn't really inspire much hope or warmth. In fact, the denouement happened so quickly I almost missed it. <br /> <br />I really wish I could give this film a higher rating. It does educate viewers about the very real problems that some young women struggle with every day. Also, again, the acting is superb. Unfortunately, rather than be drawn in emotionally, I felt detached from Precious. It's too bad, because just a few changes could have made this work so well.

It's an intelligent movie of modern incest in a factually disfunctional Afro-American family and unaction of paid for taking actions against such deeds.

I now understand what the hype is about. This is a very thought provoking and brutally honest movie about a girl who was consistently raped by her father and both verbally and physically abused by her mother. The only thing that keeps her sane throughout these horrors is to imagine herself as a Cinderella at the Ball kind of character. <br /> <br />Precious is failing school but one teacher recognizes in her, an aptitude for math. The guidence counseler recommends that Precious go to a special education school. There Precious is treated with respect and slowly starts to come out of her shell and start to have goals for herself. <br /> <br />All the while, her mother is doing her utmost to prevent Precious from learning, constantly calling her stupid and telling her she can never be anything. Her mother is a couch potato who only cares about fooling the welfare agency to keep her check coming. It is only until very late in the film that the audience learns why she is so bad with Precious. <br /> <br />This is the type of movie that shows you no matter what the human soul endures there can always be hope even in the darkest of times. <br /> <br />

This movie was a total and utter waste of time and money. I have no clue why this movie has received so much attention or any awards for that matter. The acting was only so so (at best) and the plot was so over the top! If I could give it less than one start I would... maybe a half a start... maybe