Precious

Directed by Lee Daniels

(Not Rated)

****

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The story of a 16-year-old girl growing up in Harlem

Precious is a film that has no fear, said Duane Byrge in The Hollywood Reporter. Based on the best-selling novel Push by Sapphire, this is a “hard-forged film with a story line so grim and abhorrent” that at first you can hardly watch. Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) is a 350-pound illiterate teenager who has been impregnated twice by her father and is emotionally abused by her mother (Mo’Nique). Director Lee Daniels carefully chronicles Precious’ “merciless degradations,” creating a brutal account of the abuse and prejudice the Harlem girl must face daily. “To call it harrowing” would not do it justice, said John Anderson in Variety. Precious is an “urban nightmare,” but Daniels gives “it a “surfeit of soul,” juggling emotional and cultural extremes—all the while keeping the story believable. That’s important, because Precious’ problems are shared by many young women who are utterly real, said Lynn Hirschberg in The New York Times Magazine. Her everyday battle to overcome these bleak circumstances makes her struggle seem universal. Precious could be a “stand-in for anyone—black, white, male, female—who has ever been devalued or underestimated.”