"Precious" is a "woman's movie" — it speaks to women, rubs them rightly or wrongly, touches a few raw nerves. Male viewers may find it hard to stomach. The scene in the screening room after the lights came on reflected this. The distributors were grouped around the entrance doors, collecting the critics' reactions. Only the women stopped to chat, press tissues to their eyes and say how much the movie meant to them. The men hotfooted it toward the elevator, their averted faces silently expressing "no comment." Later, a female staff member explained, "Men know that it's a good movie, but that doesn't stop them from wanting to put it out of their minds, as quickly as possible."

"Precious" is about a 16-year-old black girl from Harlem — and between her mother, teacher, classmates and social workers that surround her (for better or worse), the hormones run aplenty. Mariah Carey makes an unrecognizable appearance as a dark-haired welfare case worker with no makeup and frumpy clothes that, strangely enough, draw out an earthy, antiglamorous sexuality. Mo'Nique spends most of her screen time as the mother, dressed in a dirty slip and bathrobe, planted in front of a TV set while gnawing on fried pigs feet. Paula Patton plays an attractive teacher at an alternative school who's devoted to her lesbian lover.

The film is not shy about the oppression of women and its disturbing consequences — a mother confesses to a social counselor that she let her husband sexually abuse their daughter for more than a decade because she was afraid of losing her own sexual relationship with him. "With my man gone," she sobs, "Who's gonna make me feel good?" As a whole, the package unabashedly shows these downtrodden women, warts and all, and could be too much for guys used to the typical cinematic made-up, well-toned versions of womanhood. For women, it's a mirror thrust in our faces, no matter how remotely connected one's own experiences are to those in the film.