I didn’t plan to cry watching Straw I actually just opened Netflix looking for something random to play in the background while folding clothes But from the moment Taraji P Henson came on screen looking worn out and tired beyond what sleep can fix I knew this film wasn’t going to let me multitask And it didn’t It gripped me from beginning to end punched me in the chest and left me sitting in silence long after the credits rolled
Straw is not just a movie It feels like a mirror held up to the struggles of everyday people who’ve been overlooked for too long Directed and written by Tyler Perry the movie tells the story of Janiyah Wiltkinson a single mother trying to hold her world together while everything around her is falling apart Rent is due Her job is gone Her daughter is sick And the system that cold bureaucratic system we all know too well keeps saying no not now or worse staying silent
Taraji’s performance is what makes Straw so unforgettable She doesn’t act the pain she lives it Every twitch of her eye every frantic breath every desperate phone call you can tell this isn’t just a character It’s a person A mother A woman who has tried everything and is now backed into a corner with nowhere else to turn She becomes the face of a silent scream that so many women especially Black single mothers carry every day
The core of the story takes place in a bank That’s where everything explodes After getting rejected for financial aid and losing hope Janiyah walks into a bank with a gun not to rob it but to force them to hear her She wants money for her daughter’s treatment She wants attention She wants someone to finally see her pain and do something about it
But this movie isn’t about violence Not really It’s about what happens when someone is pushed so far that survival becomes rebellion Janiyah doesn’t come off as a villain She’s not out for revenge She’s just broken And when a person is broken like that you can’t predict what they’ll do
Now here’s where it gets deep the twist Throughout the film we see her talking to her daughter caring for her protecting her But then comes that gut wrenching phone call Her mother tells her that Aria her daughter died the night before Everything we saw the school drop off the hospital plan the quiet moments none of it happened Janiyah had been living inside a hallucination refusing to accept the most unbearable truth of all Her daughter was already gone
That moment shattered me
It redefines everything we’ve seen up to that point The hostage situation isn’t just a cry for help it’s her final unraveling She wasn’t trying to save Aria anymore She was trying to rewrite reality To have one more day with her To fight for her even if it was too late
Sherri Shepherd and Teyana Taylor also delivered in this film Sherri plays the bank manager who walks a tightrope between fear and compassion You can see the internal conflict in her eyes trying to protect her staff trying to understand the woman in front of her and wondering if maybe just maybe she could be her in a different life Teyana Taylor plays the negotiator outside a young Black female officer who sees Janiyah not just as a threat but as a reflection There’s a powerful moment where she says I see her I know her She’s me That scene gave me chills
Tyler Perry has done many films and people have different opinions about his style But Straw is different This one hits differently It’s quieter in some ways but more dangerous emotionally It doesn’t wrap things up neatly It doesn’t offer easy solutions It just tells the truth and the truth is ugly and painful and important
Visually the film is very contained Most of it happens in the bank but the tension never drops The close up shots the pacing of the dialogue the pauses where nothing is said but everything is felt it all works And the symbolism of the title Straw Brilliant This wasn’t about robbery This was about that final straw That last invisible burden that tips a person over the edge
I think what haunts me most is the question the movie leaves behind How many Janiyahs are walking among us right now Smiling at the market Sitting quietly in church Answering phones in an office Carrying the weight of the world in silence How many people are just one unanswered prayer away from breaking
Straw isn’t perfect Some critics may say it’s too emotional or the twist is too dramatic But those people don’t understand what it’s like to suffer silently They don’t understand what grief and desperation look like in real life The truth is sometimes the most dramatic things are the most real
This movie needs to be seen Not just for Taraji’s performance which deserves an award but for the message it carries For the uncomfortable conversation it opens For the people it speaks for
In the end Straw reminded me that we are all just one moment one phone call one disaster away from the edge And maybe if we paid more attention really looked into people’s eyes and listened we could stop some of them.