Powerful "Push" pulls viewers into teen girl's hell

By Duane Byrge

PARK CITY, Utah (Hollywood Reporter) - "Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire" is a disturbing, overwhelming story of one Harlem girl's merciless degradations. A masterful entry in the Sundance Film Festival's dramatic competition, the film could find no bounds in the awards categories.

The film's story line is so grim and abhorrent -- a 16-year-old black girl has been impregnated twice by her father -- that marketing will be tough. But the crystalline performances, including a bravura performance from Mo'Nique, should propel word-of-mouth. Solid supporting turns from Mariah Carey, Paula Patton and Lenny Kravitz will also help commercially.

In this inner-city horror story, newcomer Gabourey Sidibe plays Clarice, who endures more personal plagues than Job. Called Precious, she's illiterate, overweight and emotionally abused by her deadbeat mother (Mo'Nique). Slow in school, Precious wallows in junior high at 16 and is shuffled through the system to a "special" program.

Shoving her boxcar frame into the bleak makeshift classroom, Precious confronts the first ray of help in her life, a charismatic teacher called Blu Rain (Paula Patton). With Blu Rain's feisty prodding, Precious slogs toward her

GED.

Precious sustains herself through intermittent fantasies. She envisions herself as the worshipful object of mass media's most vapid idealizations: a red-carpet superstar and, most shockingly, a blond, blue-eyed white beauty queen. As degrading as they might seem, those oddly inspired flights of fancy are the sole windows of self-esteem for this girl.

Damien Paul's edgy and effervescent screenplay propels us into the inner recesses of primitive survival. It's a magnificent distillation, both succinct and eruptive. Director Lee Daniels sagely navigates the story from Precious' inner world through the flashes of fantasy that allow her to transcend her personal hell, if only for a moment.

As Precious, Sidibe is superb, allowing us to see the inner warmth and beauty of a young woman who, in the world's cruel eyes, might seem monstrous. As Precious' hideous mother, Mo'Nique is cruelty incarnate. It's an astonishingly powerful performance.