Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire is a graphic, coming of age drama that tells the story of a sixteen year old girl growing up in Harlem in the 1980s. Precious, the girl, is being raised by a single mother and she faces a lot of challenges in her life. Precious is extremely overweight and she is illiterate as well. Her mother is extremely abusive to her and tells her often that she is worthless and will never amount to anything. Her father only comes around to rape her. When the movie opens, she is pregnant with her second baby by her father, both babies having been the product of rape. Her mother is extremely jealous of Precious being pregnant and beats her because of it, instead of helping her defend herself against her father. Precious is having a difficult time in school. She does not pick up on her lessons easily and many of her fellow students are abusive towards her and make fun of her for weight and dark skin color. Precious’ principal takes pity on her and helps her transfer to an alternative high school. Many of the girls in the alternative high school are also young mothers and come from abusive family situations. While in the new high school, Precious begins to blossom and learn. She begins to make friends and connect with the other young women in her class. For the first time in her life, she has people who are on her side, especially her sympathetic teacher. She begins to realize her self-worth as a human being and begins to work for a better life for her and her children. She also begins to work with a social worker, who investigates the abuse going on in Precious’ home and helps her find a way out of that. Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire was produced by Oprah Winfrey. It stars Gabourey Sidibe, Paula Patton, Moni’que, Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz. It is rated R for language and graphic sexual content. The film is a drama and deals with many horrific themes in a graphic manner.