Precious reminds me very much of my own childhood...except I wasn’t illiterate, my mama wasn't crazy, and somehow, wonder of wonders, I was able to avoid getting pregnant - twice, by my own father.

I won’t "give it away" for you because I want you to feel the same way about it as I do.  I haven’t felt so excited about a film since...well, since I was 9 and realized I could get short little snippets of porn from the cable box by flipping the channels back and forth.

Precious features uterus-collapsing performances by people you wouldn’t necessarily have expected them from.  Mariah Carey (of Glitter box-office damnation) is suddenly a commonly dressed social worker and convincingly so.  Comedienne Mo’Nique, known for her bubbly nature and humorous quips, now morphs into a frying-pan-wielding-bleached-faced monster.  BUT the most remarkable performance comes from Gabourey Sidibe who, without formal training, so smoothly portrays Precious that the emotions of audience and actress become one.  Instead of feeling embarrassment for an actor caught in a bad performance, you feel embarrassment with a character caught in bad situations. 

Backstory on Clareece “Precious” Jones: an obese, illiterate, 16-year-old girl, who is black as midnight and pregnant for the second time by her father, is pulled from the ashes of 1980’s Harlem and given a chance at life.

I’m gonna have to add director Lee Daniels and executive producers Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry to my Christmas card list.

Limited early release date: November 6, 2009  http://www.weareallprecious.com/