STRAW
Great example of the ends not justifying the means.
Almost an unbearable performance from some actors. Other than Taraji Henson (Janiya), the cast was filled with cliches, gimmicks, and outright awkward performances. The message is very strong here, and in the right hand, this could’ve been great, but it wasn’t.
Sum sum: A woman down her luck can barely afford to take care of her child. She works two jobs and tirelessly cares for her “baby.” She gets fired because she can’t do everything, then caught up in a robbery, then goes to the bank with a gun trying to cash a check. Whole thing blows up and police think she’s robbing the bank and that her kids project is a bomb. Look. A lot of holes. There are continuity holes: she barely made it in to the bank before close yet people were in line behind her. Certain plot points pivoted on the existence of her child, yet she just magically imagined them. I mean there is a whole child protective services scene that is just brushed off as hysteria when, PLOT TWIST, the child had died the day before and she was hallucinating. And honestly, it is such an unnecessary twist. Like the story could have been resolved so straightforward, and the death of her kid, if anything, takes away from the empathy toward the mother. It dehumanizes her and makes her out as a crazy, which is kind of against the whole idea of the movie. I think that I would have felt a comparable, if not stronger, connection to the mom had her kid been alive in the end, and it wouldn’t have convoluted everything. PLUS, when the he’ll did they tell the branch manager that the kid was dead, I mean we saw all of the communication between the police and bank. Just ridiculous.
Not even necessary to include a critique section, because I’ve already grilled so hard. The worst might be the police actors. Just unbearably one dimensional. Good guy with similar background, bad guy that won’t listen, bad guy that becomes good when meeting good guy. The only reason I would say that twist benefitted the movie was that it made more sense why she was so crazy the whole time, yet, as I said, it depletes the story. I mean she’ll probably end up in a psych ward realistically. AND (last thing) THERE IS SO MUCH SUPERFLUOUS DIALOG. This is more a knock on the writing than the acting.
Netflix has made better. Janiya, a round of applause (for the most part); everyone else, 0.5/5 stars (Janiya pulls up the average).