Movie Review: Straw (2025): A Portrait of Grief, Motherhood, and Torture
By Prevail Otobo.
In a world where Hollywood sugarcoats poverty and masks the harsh realities of single motherhood, Straw emerges as a bold, heartbreaking, and brutally realistic portrayal of these challenges. Ones that society too often treats as the norm. Directed by Tyler Perry, the award-winning actor and screenwriter, and starring Taraji P. Henson alongside stars like Teyana Taylor, the film offers an unflinching look at the weight single Black mothers carry, especially when society turns a blind eye.
In Straw, Taraji P. Henson delivers a haunting performance as Janiyah, a mother stretched far beyond her limits physically, emotionally, and mentally. Janiyah is devoted to her daughter Aria, a child who suffers from seizures and asthma. Despite warnings from doctors about potential complications, Janiyah resists pressure to abort her pregnancy. In a tragic twist, she is manipulated into terminating her pregnancy, only to later fight against the odds to care for her daughter.
The film’s turning point comes when, in a desperate attempt to provide for Aria, Janiyah becomes entangled in a robbery and murder case. Just as hope seems utterly lost, a devastating revelation unfolds that Aria had already died the day before the chaos began. Everything Janiyah had done was in pursuit of a ghost. Her battle was over before she even knew it. At just five years old, Aria’s life was cut short, and her mother’s spiral into despair followed.
This 2025 psychological thriller has sparked widespread social media discourse, praised for its emotional depth, suspenseful narrative, and powerful performances.
The film opens with a somber scene. Janiyah and Aria sleeping in a cramped, dilapidated apartment. In her sleep, Janiyah dreams of holding a healthy Aria in a hospital bed, a rare smile of satisfaction on her face. Moments later, the harsh blare of her alarm drags her back to reality.
She prepares for another difficult day: dropping Aria off at school, heading to her job as a cashier at a grocery store. That same day, her world begins to unravel. She is evicted for failing to pay rent, then fired from her job for missing shifts due to her daughter’s frequent health emergencies. When her car is seized for an expired license, her desperation deepens.
Returning to her workplace to collect her final paycheck, she is caught in a robbery. In a moment of panic and self-defense, she retaliates resulting in the deaths of both a robber and her former boss. Staggering from the scene, she heads to a bank, gun in hand, confused, grieving, and hopeless. Misunderstood as a threat, police are called. A bank employee begins livestreaming the incident, influencing public perception in real-time. Though initially vilified, as more of Janiyah’s story comes to light, the public begins to empathize with her plight.
Rather than relying on clichés, the film builds its emotional power slowly, leading to a crescendo that captures the burning, often unnoticed, fuse of grief and mental collapse.
As expected, Taraji P. Henson is phenomenal. She brings a raw vulnerability to Janiyah. Every tremble, every glance, every tear feels heartbreakingly real. Her performance anchors the film.
Young Gabrielle Jackson, who plays Aria, also leaves a mark, even though her presence turns out to be a hallucination. The mother-daughter bond is deeply felt, underscoring the emotional weight of the story.
Sherri Shepherd, as the sympathetic bank manager who chooses to support Janiyah in her breakdown, brings warmth and depth to her role. The supporting cast, Tyler Lepley, Ashley Versher, Irma P. Hall, and Michael Ealy, deliver strong performances despite limited screen time, giving Henson the space to dominate the film.
One standout is Tessa, the cold and antagonistic bank teller, whose refusal to show empathy adds another layer of conflict and tension.
The final scenes are crushing. After the livestream goes viral and police swarm her apartment, Janiyah’s mother calls and reminds her of the truth. The truth that Aria died the day before. Everyone around her, from the bank manager to the detectives, knew this. But Janiyah, consumed by grief and denial, could not accept it.
Realizing the extent of her psychological breakdown, Janiyah calmly surrenders to the police, her face a mixture of sorrow, acceptance, and uncertainty. The film ends not with violence or resolution, but with a quiet reckoning: a mother asking herself if she will spend the rest of her life paying for a tragedy she couldn’t process in time.
Straw is a harrowing masterpiece that does not flinch from the grim realities of single motherhood, mental illness, and systemic inequality. Anchored by Taraji P. Henson’s outstanding performance, it explores the devastating effects of unresolved trauma, poverty, and societal neglect.
At its core, Straw is not just a psychological thriller, it is a mirror held up to our collective indifference toward the mentally ill and the economically disadvantaged. It is also a powerful reminder of the importance of mental health awareness, and the role media plays in shaping public empathy.
A must-watch in 2025, Straw is a deeply emotional, sobering, and unforgettable cinematic experience.
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