Nominated for three Golden Globes (including Best Film) and winning one of them (Mo'Nique for Best Supporting Actress), as well as winning three Sundance awards (including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the U.S. Dramatic Competition) Precious is set in Harlem in 1987 and tells the story of Claireece "Precious" Jones (Golden Globe-nominated Gabourey Sidibe). She's a 16-year-old African-American who is pregnant for the second time by her absent father. Her mother (Mo'Nique) is a bitterly angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is a place of chaos, and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good grades yet an embarrassing secret: she can't read or write.
Threatened with expulsion, Precious is offered the chance to transfer to an alternative school--and her instincts tell her this is the one chance she's been waiting for. In a literacy workshop, the patient yet firm Ms. Rain (Paula Patton) helps Precious begin a journey that will lead her from pain and powerlessness to love and self-determination.
"This is an exceptional film about nearly unendurable circumstances, endured. You will come out the other side of it a markedly enriched filmgoer." --Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune (Rated R for child abuse including sexual assault, and pervasive language.)
