Straw Analysis | Characters, Themes, And 1 Surprisingly Great Plot Twist

I came into this film, Straw, with very low expectations. Since Tyler Perry’s film, Divorce in the Black, and the unsavoriness of his newer series, Beauty in Black (I unfortunately couldn’t get far enough in the series to make an informed opinion on it), I came into Straw with the pre-conceived belief that I would just find the same narratives and themes that typically prevail in Tyler Perry films. 

Themes like the suffering of black women, broken familial relationships, faith (in the OG Tyler Perry films), and one-note dialogue and characterization. 

And while Straw still crosses off the majority of the Tyler Perry starter-pack list, it delivers this classic Perry recipe so well, letting it simmer into new depths of tastefulness.

When I tell you, I was hooked, wide-eyed from the beginning to the end of this film. It delivered the same thrill of unraveling a character that the phenomenal series Adolescence gave. 

Straw Analysis | Cast, Theme, Plot Twist [SPOILERS]

A series of unfortunate events leads single mother, Janiyah, to the brink of herself.

** WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD **

Cast & Characters

Taraji P. Henson

First of all, we’ve got to give Taraji P. Henson her flowers. When I first saw her face on the cover of this film, looking tired and haggard, I said, “Oh no they didn’t.” Haven’t we seen this before? We saw this same version of Taraji before in another Tyler Perry movie, playing the distressed, crazy black woman in the film Acrimony.

On that alone, I wanted to write the movie off. But there is a reason why Taraji is often typecast into these roles – because she plays them so well. So convincingly. And she somehow can create levels of nuance to her crazy. She can dial it up, dial it down, soften it, roughen up the edges. Within the realm of “crazy black women”, she creates diversity, depth, and motive. 

I can totally see Tyler Perry writing the movie Straw, thinking about who can shoulder the weight of this role with all the grace and fire it needs, and not being able to mentally substitute anyone for Taraji in this role. 

The leading role begs for Henson’s specific ability to emote measured anger, frustration, and pain. And I truly don’t think this role could’ve been executed any better. 

Sherri Shepherd

Another actress who wonderfully embodied her role was Sherri Shepherd. I had no idea she would be in the film, but I was pleasantly surprised to see her. A naturally bubbly and big personality, Shepherd’s ability to support the film without “doing too much” was just superb. 

Her wise and poised demeanor, her calm within the storm, a voice of reason within the chaos, her empathy and grace. It supported the narrative beautifully and is the kind of performance that others may overlook because of how seamlessly it flowed. 

Teyana Taylor

This is in stark contrast to Teyana Taylor’s portrayal of her character, a role that has garnered many comedic mock-ups showcasing and exaggerating Taylor’s commanding presence and intense acting chops.

It took a while for me to separate Teyana Taylor as a real-life individual from the fictional Detective Raymond. The two didn’t blend seamlessly for me, and all I could see was Taylor pretending to be someone else for a good chunk of the film.

Even in times when Detective Raymond began to show a little emotion, it was a bit unconvincing at first. 

Taylor turned every journey from one location of the scene to the next into a runway, every head turn into a shampoo commercial, and every heated opinion into an impassioned lover’s quarrel.

Taylor naturally has strong facial features, making it easy for her to emote intensity, but sometimes there was a bit of incongruency between the level of intensity she displayed and the level of intensity needed for the scene. It didn’t always work seamlessly for me.

Either she was trying too hard, looking too expressionless, or not softening up enough. Nevertheless, by the end of the film, my hesitations with her character’s expressions melted away as I became more invested in the plot and each character within it.

Straw Analysis | Prevalent Themes

Allowing People to Help

A huge reason why the main character, Janiyah, ended up in such a pitiful situation was because she refused to allow people to help her.

She held on to the belief that she was undeserving of help and that she had to do everything on her own. 

At the beginning of the film Straw, she was willing to give a beggar a few of her last coins, yet unwilling to accept money from her coworker. 

Mind you, the amount of money that her coworker had given her was most likely the exact amount she needed to avoid the messiness that drove the film’s plot.

Imagine if Janiyah had just accepted the $40 given to her upfront, the film would have been a total of 15 minutes long.

As a single mother, there were probably many times in Janiyah’s life when she needed support, yet no one was available to help her. She may have internalized those moments of helplessness as a reality that she is cursed to bear.

She’s not deserving of help but rather is condemned to do everything by herself, to figure it all out by herself, to find it all by herself, which puts her in a mental state of believing that the world is against her. 

The world cosigned her beliefs by giving her a berating and impatient landlord, a no-nonsense, self-centered, inconsiderate boss, and the poor graces of an ill-mannered cop with horrific road rage. 

This formula led to Janiyah experiencing the worst day ever known in the history of mankind. 

The lesson in this is to allow people to help you. Don’t be too stubborn to accept support, and also, don’t think of yourself as above needing support or not worthy of accepting support. No one can do everything on their own. 

Straw’s Narrative on a Broken Society

It’s not always bad people who do bad things; sometimes it’s brokenness that creates these bad things. 

That explains how much support the public was giving Janiyah during the stand-off in the bank. 

They resonate with the difficulties of just trying to financially make it day to day. Of trying to support yourself and your family with the little you’ve broken your back to receive. 

That breaks a person. That exhausts a person. To see a character unravel like this is something that people can relate to. It’s harder for a broken person to see straight and move on the straight and narrow.

In a state of burnout and exhaustion, especially when you’ve done everything to go about life the morally upright way, there will be temptation to get what you need through other means. 

People relate to this temptation. They relate to life’s unfairness and empathize with Janiyah’s struggle. 

Are we living in a society where we create broken people? Where help and support are not readily available without a hefty price tag? 

Does society create its own monsters?

This is one of the questions that Straw poses. 

Black Women Supporting Black Women

The Black female experience is unique, just like Black culture is unique. There are details in Black womanhood that only we can understand and identify, which is why Detective Raymond had such a soft spot for Janiyah and vice versa. 

Black sisterhood truly is a beautiful thing. 

Straw Analysis | The Shocking Twist [SPOILERS]

The plot twist in this story is astronomical.

I was not expecting it at all, and honestly, was so invested in the story that I was hooked even before the twist, making the twist a jaw-dropping cherry on top of an already captivating film. 

Let’s make sense of this ending together. 

Janiyah’s motives throughout the film are strong, present, and reasonable. 

Everybody can understand what an incredibly strong motive love is. Especially the love a mother has for their children. 

So to see Janiyah struggle, and beg, and plead for the sake of providing for her daughter feels reasonable. 

We see Janiyah take dangerous risks for her daughter’s sake, threaten for her sake, kill for her sake…

The motives match the action because strong love causes us to take strong actions with strong consequences. 

So, to discover that Janiyah’s daughter has been dead from the beginning of the movie, that Janiyah was just unable to cope with that reality, just added a whole other level of broken to her situation. 

The daughter whom she bathed in the morning was a figment of her wishful imagination. Dropping off her daughter at school was just a distressed mother trying to bring the ghost of her daughter back into her life. 

The $40 that she struggled to earn to cover her daughter’s lunch was for a daughter who was no longer able to enjoy food.

The phone call stating that her daughter was being dragged by Child Protective Services was just Janiyah’s mind trying to make any excuse it could to conceptualize her daughter no longer being in her life. 

Maybe because she wasn’t able to provide enough for her daughter, her daughter was taken from her. 

Maybe if she were $40 richer, her daughter wouldn’t have been taken from her. 

To see how the one thing that kept her alive, kept her grinding and striving and trying, had been stripped from her life, she couldn’t believe it was real. 

She didn’t find it in herself to seek help; she didn’t have the resources to do so. She was broken, and the sadness of this realization created a whole new world of depth to everything that came before it in the movie. 

This woman is not just struggling financially. Her heart is struggling, her soul is struggling, her mind is struggling, and she’s refused all help up until this point. 

The mental break she’s going through is justified, and the motive is clear and fitting. Reformation is needed, but as an audience, we can’t help but feel her hurt, feel her pain, and sympathize with it. 

In Conclusion…

This Straw analysis highlighted the most impactful artistic decisions that made this film such a captivating success.

Those choices include the smart casting choices, strong and prevalent themes, and a jaw-dropping plot twist.

With this film being one of Tyler Perry’s better films to date, it leaves me anticipating the next, hoping that Straw isn’t his last.

Rating 9.5/10

What’s your Straw Analysis? Let me know in the comments below!

And be sure to subscribe for the latest blog updates (form in sidebar).

Peace, love, and lots of popcorn,

IMO

Last Updated on 07/03/2025 by IMO Flicks