by Bob Mondello
National Public Radio
As a stand-up comic noted for raunchy one-liners, Mo'Nique probably never imagined that her name and the phrase "Best Actress" would find themselves in the same sentence, except perhaps as a punch line. But such is the power of a blunt but undeniably effective new movie — a melodrama with the unwieldy title Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire — that no one's laughing at the notion as Oscar season approaches.
Nor is Mo'Nique's blistering performance as a monstrous mother the only surprise in this passionate tale. Director Lee Daniels was once a casting director, and he's gone out of his way to give plenty of unlikely performers the chance to shine: pop star Mariah Carey, deglammed and ferocious as a bulldog of a social worker; rocker Lenny Kravitz, gently amusing as a head-turning maternity-ward nurse; and most remarkably, newcomer Gabourey Sidibe, making her film debut as Claireece "Precious" Jones, a withdrawn, morbidly obese teenager whose very survival seems unlikely as the movie begins...
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