You know those films that are so poignant and painful that they stay with you forever? Movies like If These Walls Could Talk, Dancer in the Dark, Samson & Delilah, Requiem for a Dream and Life is Beautiful? Well new release Precious takes “gut-wrenching” to a whole new level.

Precious is the film adaptation of the highly acclaimed novel Push by Saphire. It tells the story of Clareece 'Precious' Jones, an overweight, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child. Her school principal recognises her potential and sends her to alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction.

The new school and a teacher named Blu Rain (srsly) give Precious a glimmer of hope in an otherwise bleak landscape. And boy oh boy, is the landscape bleak. Precious lives in Harlem with her mother who is evil incarnate - not only does she force her pregnant teenage daughter to cook and clean for her while suffering an onslaught of physical and verbal abuse, she expects her to do other horrifying things as well. I won’t go into detail as I don’t want to spoil it for you, but let’s put it this way – I had my head in my jacket while muttering the words “for the love of god” more than once.

And that's why this film is so gruelling - it is utterly relentless. The trials and tribulations just keep on coming for Precious. Just when you think she’s going to get a break the hits keep on coming, quicker and more violent than ever before. So much so that each shocking revelation in the film was met with audible gasps from the audience members.

There’s no doubt about it – this is a sobering snapshot of the struggling American underclass.

The film (which is executive produced by Oprah Winfrey) has been doing the festival circuit this year and has been met with rave reviews. The raves were mostly about the performances, and rightly so. Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe does a stellar job in the title role. She manages that difficult mix of tough and vulnerable and has the audience feeling her acute pain every step of the way. Sometimes it’s difficult to understand what she’s saying, but I guess mumbling is true to a character with seriously depleted self-confidence.

The real standout though is Mo'Nique in the role of her mother, Mary. The mums in Carrie and Mommie Dearest had the "worst mother in cinematic history" title all sewn up until Mary came along. She is imbued with such shocking spite and fury that you find yourself physically recoiling from the cinema screen. This is one of the most terrifying movie villains of the year and if she doesn’t get a best supporting actress Oscar, she’s been robbed.

The film also has a couple of celebs in cameo roles; Lenny Kravitz does a great job as the generous, handsome Nurse John (we chatted with him about his role in Cannes – you can read the interview here), while Mariah Carey is excellent as Precious’ straight-talking social worker. I KNOW! Mariah Carey giving a convincing performance! It’s a Christmas miracle.

The film is also a credit to the production team. The mixture of hand-held camera with jump cut editing (which becomes predominant in moments of crisis in the film) works incredibly well. It’s a clever move stylistically to have the characters agitation reflected in this fractured footage.

In the novel Precious escapes to a fantasy world each time she is mistreated. A world where she stars in film clips, walks the red carpet to the cheer of adoring fans and has handsome men kissing her on the neck. These fantasy sequences are cleverly executed in the film - the garish colours contrast brilliantly with the dull muted tones of the Harlem lounge room. It must have been a challenge to portray this “safe place” and still be true to the horror of what is actually going on, but they’ve executed it beautifully.

Director Lee Daniels hasn’t had an awful lot of experience at the helm (though he did produce the excellent Monster’s Ball a few years back) so this film is a real credit to him. The fact that he has you leaving the cinema thinking “things really aren’t so bad in my world … in fact, I’m pretty damn lucky,” is a testament to his talent as a director.

Precious is a powerful film, but an extremely traumatic one. It’s the sort of thing you should see once, but you won’t be able to bring yourself to watch it again.

Precious opens in cinemas on February 4, 2010.
You can view the Precious movie trailer here on TheVine.