Orange County Register

I doubt this movie would be listed under holiday fare, but it seems to me the perfect Thanksgiving Day film if you need to be reminded of what you have to be thankful for.

Go see “Precious,” the film by Lee Daniels about an obese black teenage girl who is sexually abused by her father and abused in every other way by her mother.

Just consider the look on actress Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe’s face as Precious in this photo from Lionsgate Pictures.

It’s not a family film, so don’t think about taking the kids unless they are teens with the maturity to handle its R-rated material.

(When my husband and I went to see it on Sunday, there were some parents who brought young children with them. What were they thinking? Wait, they weren’t thinking! Click here to see how Register entertainment writer Barry Koltnow addresses this kind of dumb parenting.)

As the movie opens, Precious is unloved and illiterate. Pregnant for the second time through the act of incest. And poor — she lives with her mother in a rundown high-rise in Harlem, the dark atmosphere in their small apartment underscored by her troubling circumstances.

But Precious is not defeated. And that’s another reason this is an ideal thanksgiving movie. (Register critic Paul Hodgins gave it a good review. And  The New York Times Magazine ran a great article that discussed the movie with director Daniels.) If you can’t get away today to see it, try before it leaves the theaters.

In her fantasies, Precious stars as the celebrity everybody wants to know, everybody loves and admires. In reality, she gets help to rise above her dismal circumstances from a determined teacher at an alternative school, her equally troubled classmates there, an empathetic male nurse, and a social worker who gets beyond asking routine questions and accepting routine answers.

It’s not an easy movie to watch. The book it is based on — the 1996 novel “Push” by Sapphire — is not easy to read, as much for the way it is written,  in Precious’ illiterate voice, as for the disturbing issues it explores.

But I dare you to see it and not end up loving Precious  for exactly who she is — someone with her own immense capacity to love, both herself and her babies despite everything.

Conversely, you’ll despise her mother, played by comedian Mo’ Nique, for exactly who she is — twisted, evil, sick, pitiful. The father remains a shadowy figure in a few flashbacks, but you’ll want to put him behind bars for forever and a day even before you see him.

It sounds bleak, and it is. But at the end, even with yet more tough circumstances heaped on her, Precious the character rises above it all. And so does “Precious” the movie. Go see it.

And Happy Thanksgiving.

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