10:39am Friday 19th March 2010
By Damon Smith
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire is a harrowing account of a 16-year-old girl living in Harlem and the journey of self-discovery that leads her out of the darkness.
Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security by the 15 certificate: Lee Daniels’ film is punctuated by entirely necessary scenes of cruelty that almost compel us to turn away from the screen in horror.
When writing the script, screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher was forced to make significant changes to the original book by poet and teacher Sapphire.
Hardcore scenes have been cut entirely, and peripheral characters fleshed out to provide flecks of humour and greater emotional support for the overweight heroine during her rites of passage.
The film pulls no punches in its depiction of the lead character’s ordeal.
We genuinely fear for the lives of the teenager and her first baby, trapped in a cramped apartment with Mary, a sadist who treats her daughter as an emotional and physical punch bag.
Unlike so many, Precious musters the courage to speak up. Thankfully, her cries for help are heard.
See it at the Wareham Rex (from Tues)
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