Straw Movie Review: Taraji P. Henson’s moving lead performance drives Perry’s film on injustice and discrimination

Tyler Perry’s Straw hinges on an intense and power-packed performance from Taraji P. Henson. Through her lead character, Janiyah, we get a glimpse of what it feels like to not be seen or heard. Straw is at once a personal story of struggle and loss as it is a social critique on an unfair and exploitative system. Working class black women in the US form the backbone of their community, often single-parenting children in the most trying circumstances. Perry’s film is an exploration of the personal and political. Janiyah’s story highlights how widespread oppression has the power to push one over the edge. You could do everything in the right way and for the right reasons, but if the circumstances are stacked so heavily against you, there is little choice but to break. While the world at large is indifferent and uncaring towards Janiyah and her insurmountable struggles, the film remains sensitive and empathetic. Thanks largely to Henson’s lead role, the viewer is placed in her character’s shoes for one whole day that spirals out of control. Straw makes you think long and hard about the subject of fairness. Janiyah is a dedicated mother, taking care of daughter to the best possible extent of her means. Despite an unfeeling environment that barely registers her presence, her kindness doesn’t waver. She has only so much at her disposal, but her heart is large.

Director: Tyler Perry

Cast: Taraji P. Henson, Sherri Shepherd, Teyana Taylor, Glynn Turman, Sinbad, Rockmond Dunbar

Streamer: Netflix

Janiyah is a single mother at the end of her tether. She works tirelessly to provide for her young daughter who is prone to seizures. The rent of her tiny one-room apartment is overdue, with the landlady threatening eviction. With mounting medical expenses for her kid, she cannot afford to lose her job at the local supermarket. Her boss is toxic and oftentimes abusive, berating her at every given turn. Living from pay check to pay check, she hasn’t provided her child with the mandatory $40 lunch money for school, something the latter pulls her up for. In the middle of her shift, she is summoned by school authorities, only to realise that Child Protective Services is taking custody for negligent parenting. No amount of pleading helps her case. In a frazzled state, she drives back to work, but a white off-duty police officer knocks into her car. He threatens to do her in, but is held back by another female cop. Due to an expired registration, both her car and licence are impounded. When she finally makes it back, she is promptly fired, with the boss refusing to hand her check over (insisting sarcastically that it will arrive in the mail). She is confronted with eviction at home, with her possessions lying outside in a heap. Desperate in every sense of the word, she returns to the supermarket to collect her rightful due of $521. As if the circumstances weren’t horrid enough, things are about to get a whole lot worse for this single, black mum whose life is barely hanging by a thread.

The real empathy of the film comes from the scenes in the bank, during the inadvertent robbery / hostage situation. Janiyah just wants her pay check of $521 to be cashed, though the gun in her hand scares the teller no end. Nicole (Sherri Shepherd), the bank manager, who knows Janiyah from earlier, is the first to recognise that this isn’t a standard hold-up, rather a person pushed to the brink owing to circumstance. What makes matters worse is that her daughter’s faulty science project in a transparent backpack is suspected to be an explosive. Well and truly, a series of unfortunate events. The parts involving the police, and the young black woman detective who requests to be lead negotiator, are a bit overdramatised. It is understood that she sees in this situation her own challenging childhood being brought up by a single mother, and thus, may be in the best position to get through to Janiyah. But the fact that she has such free rein, especially with seasoned officers around her and the FBI on the brink of intervention, seems implausible. Sherri Shepherd complements Henson so well in the film, and it is their unlikely bond that is the sensitive highlight. Their collective emotional range operates at such a high level that you don’t have to look beyond them in the story.

Straw captures the adage of bad things happening to good people. Add systemic oppression, racism and an overall lack of empathy to the mix, and you’re left with a potent combination to narrate a poignant tale of loss, struggle and injustice.