Precious

This grim, gritty, urban drama won kudos at the Sundance, Cannes, and Toronto Film Festivals (and the endorsement of Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry), as well as multiple Golden Globe nominations (and is sure to be Oscar contender). Poor, illiterate, and morbidly obese, Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a 16-year-old African-American, has been raped by her father since she was a toddler and has already borne one Down syndrome child and is pregnant by him again, in 1987, when she's assigned to an alternative Harlem school, Each One/Teach One, where a compassionate teacher (Paula Patton) encourages her to keep a journal. Expressing her bleak despair and traumatic rage in poetry and prose allows the angry and alienated Precious to blossom with her first bit of self-esteem and self-respect. This infuriates her jealous, foul-mouthed, welfare-cheating mother (Golden Globe-winner Mo'Nique), a sadistic predator who habitually abuses Precious—emotionally and physically. While newcomer Sidibe is riveting (she's also the voice-over narrator), standup comedienne Mo'Nique also delivers a powerhouse performance, and the rest of the cast includes a surprisingly deglamorized Mariah Carey as the patient social worker who finally has to intervene between Precious and her monstrous mother, and Lenny Kravitz, nearly unrecognizable in a small role as a nurse. Screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher and director Lee Daniels are slavishly faithful to the socially conscious 1996 novel by Sapphire (aka teacher/poet Ramona Lofton), mixing an almost documentary sensibility with lighthearted sequences of sheer fantasy. Shocking, street-smart, and featuring brazen and devastating performances, this is highly recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by director Lee Daniels, “A Precious Ensemble” cast featurette (19 min.), a “From Push to Precious” featurette on the novel being turned into a film (16 min.), an “Oprah and Tyler: A Project of Passion” segment with executive producers Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry (10 min.), an interview with Daniels and author Sapphire (9 min.), the audition of star Gabourey Sidibe (2 min.), a deleted scene (2 min.), a brief series of “Reflections” by Daniels, Sidibe, and costar Paula Patton, and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for this multi-Oscar nominee, one of 2009's best films.] (S. Granger)