It would be hard to argue the point. A movie about an overweight 16 year-old-girl with a poor background who is pregnant with her second child is not a story that can reach the masses. Even when PUSH, as it was originally titled, made its debut at this year's Sundance film festival, no one would have thought it had any potential to go anywhere. And then it won both the jury prize and the audience award. The fact that is was sold at that point is not so surprising. What is surprising is who bought it. Here is this little movie with the potential to make anyone who watches it want to die a little and it gets bought up my Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey - two of the biggest mass appeal media moguls on the planet. All of a sudden, PRECIOUS - BASED ON THE NOVEL "PUSH" BY SAPPHIRE, as it has now been renamed, is competing at Cannes and is one of the most hotly anticipated titles of 2009. There is even Oscar talk.
PRECIOUS was written and directed by Lee Daniels. This is only Daniels' second film and I'm sure even he is surprised by the attention this project is now garnering. To watch the trailer, you can feel the spin machine working overtime to make the film seem as inspirational as it can be. I'm sure the film isn't completely devoid of positive messages but sugar coating is not going to fool anyone when you see images of mothers chasing after their daughters with frying pans. Oddly, that isn't nearly as frightening as Mariah Carey without makeup.
PRECIOUS will begin its limited run on November 6.