Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire |  | Director: Lee Daniels
Actors: Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique
Studio: Lionsgate
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
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Rating:  146 reviews
Sales Rank: 525
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English (Unknown)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Running Time: 109 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.7
MPN: 031398119777
UPC: 031398119777
EAN: 0031398119777
ASIN: B002VECM4A
Theatrical Release Date: November 6, 2009
Release Date: March 9, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In harlem an overweight illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 03/09/2010 Starring: Gabourey Sidibe Mariah Carey Run time: 109 minutes Rating: R
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
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great movie for promoting that welfare should end September 7, 2010
Anton Batey (Detroit, MI USA)
I saw this movie roughly 5 times and skimmed through the book as well. I thought the movie, as far as production, was excellent. Mo'nique, as always, gave a hell of a performance. I have never seen her in anything that *wasn't* a comedy, so I really garnered more respect for her, as an actress, for playing such a cold, callous, horrible person. Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) was flawless. Very, very convincing and realistic. Of course, Paula Patton (Ms. Rain) did a great job, as she did in Deja Vi, an Mariah Carey did as well.
I left the movie theater with a different impression as everyone else. Most people I know who watched the movie mentioned how horrible of a life Precious had, and what a horrible woman Mary (Mo'Nique) was. Obviously this is the case. What I didn't hear many people talking about is how a culture like this becomes created and what can be done to end it. Precious has two children who are the result of incest/rape from his own biological father. Okay.....why would any sane person want to bring children into the world that way? Abortion should have been brought up as a pragmatic, realistic, serious and sensible option. It wasn't. Maybe it would have been if the welfare system would not have been there for people who have children when they're not ready.
You're smart enough to know that your life is terrible....yet you bring children into the world? The only four reasons I can think of for why someone would want to have a child under these circumstances are
1. Nobody in the world loves you and by having a child, you're basically "forcing" another human to love you, thus being extremely selfish,
2. Welfare money (I used to work at a DHS office, and the rule IS, "the dumber and more irresponsible you are, the more government handouts you receive")
3. Gives you an excuse for failure,
4. In a distant last, to keep a boyfriend
ALL/ANY of those reasons are disgusting reasons to have children.
Mo'Nique's character was ultra-stereotypical. Ignorant (saying she couldn't have gotten HIV because he never had anal sex with her partner), homophobic, lazy as hell, watches TV all day, and most important, welfare dependent. I firmly believe that were it for her welfare checks, she would not be the same horrible person, and she might not have had Precious, and none of this would have happened. Even the dumbest, non-educated person would think twice about having children knowing that if they do, they're totally on their own regarding funds necessary to raise a child.
My interpretation may seem insensitive and shallow, which couldn't be further from the truth. On the contrary, I think situations like ones in this movie are horrible, which is exactly why I'm an advocate of ending the welfare system and of seeing abortion as a feasible and reasonable option. If you disagree and suddenly become "religious" on this one issue (which is a crock usually), so be it. Just don't then look for "society" to pay for your own decisions.
 6 billion universes August 30, 2010
PsyRC (USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Not so precious August 27, 2010
D. J. Nardi (Washington, DC)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
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.
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..."
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.
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.
Incest today August 6, 2010
Michael Kerjman
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Compelling and Disturbing! July 19, 2010
Michael A. Newman (New Hyde Park, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
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.
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.
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.
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