Gabourey Sidibe Shines in Inspirational True Story of ‘Precious’

CHICAGO – The final scene of Lee Daniels’ “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” ends with a dedication that the film is for “precious girls everywhere”.

The words seem likely to resonate with the legions of fans of this tragic true story (based on the girls that the author met while teaching in NYC) - women and men who can identify with rising above abuse, poverty, addiction, or whatever seemingly insurmountable odds speak most personally to them.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Daniels has made a bleak, brutal, depressing urban drama that will surely be the “feel-bad, feel-good” movie of the year, a well-made film that is so dark that it can be hard to watch but that is designed to illustrate the fact that the human power to overcome adversity is stronger than the instinct to shrivel and die.

Read Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” in our reviews section. [13]

Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) is a stolid, overweight, somber, friendless teenager who has lived through an absolute nightmare since the day she was born. She is regularly abused by her mother (Mo’Nique) and is recently pregnant with her second child, both offspring the product of continuous rape by her own father since she was only an infant.

After her second pregnancy is discovered, Precious is shuttled off to an alternate education program for young women who have shown academic potential and she starts to discover that there are people in the world willing to help her. The most important are a teacher named Ms. Rain (Paula Patton) and a welfare worker played by Mariah Carey, but she also makes friends in her class and even opens up to a cute nurse played by Lenny Kravitz. The walls between the fantasy world that Precious has constructed to escape the pain of her everyday life start to come down as she is lifted by others towards a chance at a normal life.

Continuing reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” review. [14]

Precious (Gabourey Sidibe, left) and Ms. Rain (Paula Patton, right) in Precious: Based On The Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire.
Photo credit: Anne Marie Fox/Lionsgate