“As dangerous as it’s, there’s at all times somebody doin’ it worse!”

That’s simply one of many pearls of knowledge dropped in Straw (now streaming on Netflix), an successfully tense action-melodrama set throughout a very rotten day by which a hard-working girl who solely desires to maintain her daughter lastly snaps. (The “straw” of the title is both the “final” one or the one which “broke the camel’s again.” Contemplating how tough issues are, it is likely to be each.)

Taraji P. Henson is instantly sympathetic as Janiyah, an exhausted single mom dwelling in a none-too-luxurious condo with no air-con, skinny partitions, and loud neighbors. Her motivation to maintain going is her lovable younger daughter Aria, who, regardless of medical points (seizures, bronchial asthma), maintains a sunny perspective. Plus, she’s a child genius, as made evident by the science undertaking Janiyah schleps round in her bag — which is fairly quickly going to be mistaken for a bomb.

However earlier than that may occur, we’d like a collection of more and more infuriating tough breaks. First, there are the youngsters making enjoyable of Aria for not having cash for lunch. Then, there’s the owner who desires the again hire now now now. And there are the aggressive clients at Janiyah’s grocery store job, her uncaring boss (a marvelously mustache-twirling Glynn Turman), the kid providers crew that yanks Aria away amid a lot screaming and crying, and the racist cops who run Janiyah off the highway and confiscate her automobile.

She will’t take it anymore, she wants the paycheck she’s owed from her awful boss, even when she’s been fired. (Oh yeah, she additionally acquired fired and evicted.) She goes again to the grocery store to demand her pay, when, wouldn't you understand it, there’s a theft. In a whirl of confusion, safes are emptied, calls to the police are made, and a gun goes off.

Panicked, Janiyah runs throughout the road to the financial institution, the place the supervisor, Nicole (Sherri Shepherd), has at all times been sort to her. In a little bit of a fugue state, Janiyah appears to suppose that every one will probably be effectively if she will be able to simply money her rattling examine. By no means thoughts that the examine is bloody, there’s a useless physique on the grocery store, and he or she’s holding a gun and an eerily bomb-like science undertaking.

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Abruptly, we’re in a Canine Day Afternoon standoff state of affairs. Cops arrive, together with Teyana Taylor’s Detective Raymond, who senses that this loopy state of affairs was not premeditated, and Janiyah is somebody who wants assist.

Contained in the financial institution, after just a few folks filter out, we’re left with a multigenerational array of Black girls, all of whom have felt varied levels of Janiyah's wrestle. She connects with Detective Raymond on the telephone, and the hostage negotiations are placed on pause so these girls can begin getting actual, as if on an outdated episode of The Oprah Winfrey Present. (“Individuals don’t understand how costly it’s to be poor,” is a type of strains that remind you why writer-director Tyler Perry is so successful.)

When a video leak makes its means “to the web,” each metropolis bus and barber store is stuffed with folks glued to their telephones, nodding their heads as Janiyah expresses her struggles. “No person cares! No person sees us!” she cries. And that’s when she morphs right into a Luigi Mangione-like cult determine, with sign-wielding followers calling her identify outdoors the financial institution. (One such signal reads "However, She Continued.")

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Straw is just not precisely refined, however the feelings are so uncooked and the performances are so earnest that you just’ve actually acquired to have a coronary heart of stone to not take care of these folks. And haven’t all of us misplaced our heads just a little bit and carried out one thing a wee bit silly? Certain, dashing right into a financial institution with a loaded pistol could also be a bit excessive, however it’s fairly arduous to not relate.

As with many Tyler Perry initiatives (together with my favourite, Boo! A Madea Halloween),there are some pacing points. To quote one particular, shallow instance, it strikes from day to nighttime in about three seconds, making you surprise what scenes acquired minimize out. There are additionally cops and FBI brokers barking at each other like opposing captains of rival highschool soccer groups. I’ve by no means been in a hostage negotiation state of affairs room earlier than, however I’ve a hunch these folks behave with a bit extra professionalism.

Henson’s efficiency is huge and broad, and when she begins freaking out she actually swings for the fences. Some moments don’t work (happening on her knees to scream “noooooo!” within the rain because the digicam cranes up is a bit a lot), and there are a number of sequences the place you actually really feel her spiraling into terror.

Sherri Shepherd and Teyana Taylor are additionally each fairly good as girls who acknowledge in Janiyah a “there however for the grace of God go I” state of affairs as they attempt to give this story an appropriate consequence. The film has a wild, enveloping conclusion which may be a bit far-fetched for some, however it's something however greedy at straws. Grade: B

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