The Reel Review
A struggling single mom is evicted from the home she shares with her sick daughter and fired from her job as a supermarket cashier only to find her very bad day is getting even worse when she is falsely accused of robbing both her employer and a bank while trying to get a check cashed. Taraji P. Henson and Teyana Taylor star in this crime thriller from writer/director Tyler Perry.
While sympathetic to the plight of those dealing with poverty and the overwhelming feeling that problems just pile on for them – the phrase “it’s expensive to be poor” is absolutely true – this melodramatic rip-off of other, way better bank robbery thrillers is both insulting to our intelligence and comically bad. An all-in Henson does the best she can with Perry’s screenplay that if called feeble would be a compliment, as does a stunning Taylor as the sympathetic police negotiator who suspects something isn’t adding up with this accused bank robbery suspect. Sherri Shepherd also stars as the bank manager.
Every single white person in the film is a villain and most of the sets look cheap, giving this offensive low budget drama a distinctly amateurish vibe, especially considering its infuriating, manipulative twist of an ending. Oh Tyler… please do better.
REEL FACTS
• Straw was filmed in four days at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta.
• Sherri Shepherd says originally her character’s name was Henrietta but that she asked Tyler Perry to change it, and it became Nicole.
• Straw is the first film role for comedian Sinbad since his stroke five years ago which left him hospitalized for nine months.
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