Never give up hope.
These four words are on my father's tombstone. They filled my thoughts watching "Precious," Lee Daniels' harrowing account of one Harlem teen's road to redemption.
Nobody wants to look at the cruel injustices of this world. For example, why is one person educated when another is not? Why are some born into wonderful homes while others are dropped into pits from hell?
Claireece "Precious" Jones, this film's 16-year-old heroine, is a silent, fearful monument to the many inequities millions of people know through fate alone.
Yet, thanks to a disarming debut by Gabourey Sidibe, and memorable turns by Mariah Carey and Paula Patton, hope triumphs in this blistering tale about one soul's emergence from darkness.
There's no sugar coating it. The degradations that this violated teen endures are overwhelming and horrific.
Incest, HIV, poverty, illiteracy. Daniels digs deep into this awesomely awful fable based on the novel "Push" by Sapphire. He expects us to do the same, even when things get really ugly.
Trust me. They do.
Raped from the age of 3 by her drug-addled father, Precious is pregnant by this louse for the second time as Daniels' film unfolds.
Her first child, now a mentally-challenged toddler, is born when Precious is 12.
Morbidly obese and miserable, Precious is mocked at school, on the streets and even in the chicken joint she steals from because she has no money.
At home, life with mother Mary (played with monstrous precision by Mo'Nique) is a chilling nightmare you would not wish on your worst enemy.
"You're nothing. You bitch. Don't you stand there and look down at me," this chain-smoking couch potato shrieks at her house-slave inside their squalid Harlem flat.
Worse still, Mary loathes her daughter for "stealing her man."
So much for a mother's support in the face of incest.
'Precious' is unrelenting, but worthwhile
"Who's gonna look after me?" Mary cries, fearful that her welfare payments will stop should Precious ever leave their twisted little cage.
It's all enough to make you want to fling something at the screen and scream "Stop!" But, hang in there.
If "Precious" teaches us anything at all it's that madness like this stems from strong, deep, life-stunting roots that go back for generations.
Miraculously, Precious breaks free thanks to two remarkable women and a last-ditch chance for an education.
Expelled from high school because of her pregnancy, Precious unwillingly enrolls in a special program for problem students.
There she meets Miss Rain (Paula Patton), a beacon of kindness and hope who nudges the unresponsive teenager back among the living.
The mountainous misfit also comes under radar of Mrs. Weiss, the tough-ass welfare counsellor played with confidence by Mariah Carey.
No matter how much this victimized youth resists, these mentors put themselves on the line for her. They listen. They care. More importantly, they stand up for Precious when nobody else will.
These little human kindnesses slowly accumulate, inspiring Precious, and us, to believe that hope and happiness are possible even in a hell-hole world.
Daniels' moving, merciless tale is not for wimps. But, hope comes from the strangest, darkest places here, even the soul-searching quiet that 26-year-old Sidibe wields so well.
Sidibe makes us feel for this unlucky casualty, no matter how distant her reality is from our own lives.
"Precious" isn't pretty. But, Sidibe, Daniels and a strong cast deliver a bittersweet reminder to all, regardless of their ethnicity or skin colour.
Sometimes you've got to go through hell to find that special hope that'll see you through. Just like my dad always told me.
Three stars out of four
