Precious
Lee Daniels’s PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL “PUSH” BY SAPPHIRE is a vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome. Set in Harlem in 1987, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), 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 father; at home, she must wait hand and foot on her mother (Mo’Nique), 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 (Paula Patton), Precious begins a journey that will lead her from darkness, pain and powerlessness to light, love and self—determination.
- Director
- Lee Daniels
- Actors
- Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz
- Genre
- Drama
Reviews from Rotten Tomatoes
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It focuses on people trying to make a positive difference in societies dominated by chaos and destruction.
Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter, 01.07.2011 -
An enthralling experience.
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal, 01.07.2011 -
The engrossing story of a Palestinian infant with a rare and deadly disease who can only be saved by a Jewish doctor in the Tel-Hashomer Hospital in Jerusalem.
Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail, 01.07.2011 -
The issues in this particular conflict are immensely difficult ones, but, despite the film's flaws, this is quite an inspirational story among all the bad news from that part of the world.
David Stratton, At the Movies (Australia), 07.19.2011