PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE
NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE
Year: 2009
USA: Lionsgate
UK: Icon Film Distribution
Cast: Mo'Nique, Gabourey Sidibe, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz, Stephanie Andujar, Chyna Layne, Amina Robinson, Xosha Roquemore, Angelic Zambrana, Aunt Dot, Nealla Gordon, Grace Hightower, Barrett Isaiah Mindell, Kimberly Russell, Bill Sage, Susan Taylor
Director: Lee Daniels
Country: USA
USA & UK: 110 mins
USA Rated: R for child abuse including sexual assault, and pervasive language
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language and sexual abuse references
USA Release Date: 6 November 2009
UK Release Date: 29 January 2010
Synopsis
Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, the film was the Winner of three awards at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the US Dramatic Competition. Directed by Lee Daniels, 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 1987, it is the story of Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a 16 year-old 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 who firmly believes that other possibilities exist for her. Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school, Each One/Teach One. She 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.