NKKLK itong Tyler Perry’s Straw. Ganun talaga ang PR eh no? Pa-auteur ang epek nitong tito mong Tyler, kung sino man siya hahaha. But I just flipped on here for tita mong Taraji. So eto, napa-film review ulit tayo dito after ten tawsan yirs.

I loved her in Hidden Figures grabe. Kaya nakakatuwa ring panoorin siya sa iba namang atake ng character. I actually wanted to pass on this one when it dropped on Netflix. Sabi ni nekplik kasi, “we think you’ll like this” chuva. Di ako naniwala sa algo hocus pocus nila, until I watched it na nga kanina for my lunchtime watching fare.

At beh!!! Nagulat naman ako sa major plot twist sa huli! Parang… yeah no. I can’t even say a film na ka-genre niya, kasi magegets agad ng mga utaw. Potah ang hirap naman. Pero hmm, sundan ba natin ‘yung sabi ng isang kapwa film reviewer na kebs daw kung may spoilers ang review, kasi we’re not out to please future viewers but our purpose is to analyze the film. Well, sabagay, tama naman. So sige, lagyan ko ng SPOILER ALERT!

Linking the trailer here. And after this part, read at your own risk na lang, hane? K.

From the get-go, the trailer presents yet another seemingly tired trope of the oppressed Black woman making it out by herself in an oppressive world. Kaya at first, I wanted to skip it. Parang alam mo na ang kuwentong ito, tired na, parang mabigat lang sa damdamin ito, and all that jazz. Sa dami na nating nakitang heist-ish or not movie structure na ganito (I am actually reminded of Al Pacino’s Dog Day Afternoon – a 1975 classic!), parang alam mo na ang tatakbuhin ng naratibo.

Character-wise din, nakita na natin ito: a single mom trying hard to eke out a living juggling two jobs just to have her only daughter survive better (the kiddo suffers from seizures and her medicines are expensive). Add to that her race (African American) and her social class (lower class) and you get this picture of someone good pushed or forced by society and circumstances to cross the line and break the law.

But did she?

Now this is where the misdirect comes in. If the trailer was hooking us using this tired melodramatic trope and character, it leads us pala to a different and totally restructured plot. As it turns out, this grocery cashier mom was recently fired due to tardiness (always late because she tends to her sick child). She merely wants to get her last paycheck sa bossing niyang bugnutin. Eh sa U.S. pala, when you’re fired, they send your last paycheck through mail pa. Eh need na ni ati ng money like now na. So these many time bomb ticking plot devices gather round her until she kinda snaps a bit. While asking for her check sa boss, robbers tried to rob the manager. Napagkamalan ni manager na kasabwat si ati, naagaw ni ati ang baril and shot one robber. With all the cash strewn around, she just got her check. Pero chinugs niya ang boss niya when he thought na kasabwat siya and he was calling the police.

So that’s the first straw breaking. Or second maybe, kasi the first is, umalis siya sa work niya kasi tumawag ang school. And in the school, social workers took away her daughter etc etc. Diskubrehin n’yo na lang why, daming plot points eh hehe. Tapos pabalik sa grocery, may naka-road rage siyang pulis pala who threatened to kill her. Abusive cop even bumped her car and spun it around, kaya na-tow. Too much Murphy’s Law going on here in this sequence alone!!!

Anyway, so marami nang major straws breaking kay ati. Then she just wanted to cash her check sa bank. Eh may atrevidang cashier na ayaw i-cash kasi walang ID si ateng kahit ilang beses na pala siyang nagpa-encash doon. So absentmindedly, nilabas niya ‘yung baril ng robber na nabitbit pala niya, so akala ni bank teller, hinoholdap sila! So this is what you see na sa trailer and stuff.

What sets this material to a totally different direction is that pinakita nila ang humanity ni ateng, na may mga kapwa Black women who wanted to support her, and not dismiss her as just a garden variety criminal. So there’s this detective na babae na nakakausap at naka-bond niya. And the bank manager also, nagets niya ang mga angst sa buhay ni ateng. So nakakatuwa naman ang kinalabasan ng naratibo.

But this is where the SPOILER ALERT comes in.

So we thought that this was a typical trope of a woman who has had it and just snapped. What’s the real “last straw that broke the camel’s back” here nga ba? Actually, it’s not her firing, nor the social workers taking her child away, not the road rage cop asshole who spun her car around, none of that. The last straw happened in the past na pala.

So eto na, masasabi ko nang they Fight Club-ed the shiz out of this tired trope, which gave it a newer spin this time. If you’ve seen that Brad Pitt-Edward Norton starrer, you know that Brad’s character was just a figment of Edward’s character’s imagination. Na all this time, siya lang din pala ‘yung nag-e-enact ng stuff pero duality mode na: as the corporate worker who snapped / as the wapakels sapaker Tyler Durden (si Brad).

As it turns out, the straw that broke this single mom’s character is the death of her child. NA NOON PA NANGYARI. So when they played every scene back when she was interacting with a child, The Matrix epek pare – there is no spoon! Or in her case, there is no child! Like imaginary lang lahat ‘yun. So matagal na pala siyang nag-snap. And to cope with the loss perhaps, her mind conjured up the existence of a child, na ninu-nurture niya, dinadala niya sa school (kaya takang-taka ‘yung principal kung ano’ng ginagawa ng babaitang ituh tuwing umaga sa school eh wala naman siyang hinahatid pero binubuksan niya ‘yung door ng car niya na parang may kinakausap na bata pero wala naman). ‘Yun nga, na-Fight Club tayo beh. I guess this koyang Tyler Perry rewatched Fight Club and thought of transplanting that plot twist to a tired trope of the woman who snapped, and pitched it to Netflix. Devah.

Anyway, so dahil sa elements na ito, na-misdirect ako nang husto – and I like it when a film’s story surprises me like that. So kudos dito, kahit paminsan-minsan eh parang cardboard characterizations ‘yung ibang mga tao sa paligid nito, specifically the white FBI authoritarian dude and the rest of the police folk here. I’ll choose to overlook that na lang. Also, naloka naman ako sa cameo ni Sinbad dito. Lolo na si koya. Pero malamang di na siya kilala ng new gen, itong comedian of our Gen X youth. Oh well papel.

And as usual, galing-galing ni tita mong Taraji here. Ayan tuloy o, napa-blog ako. Winner. So ayun. Tama nga ang algo ni nekplik buset hahaha.

O siya, makapagtrabaho na nga – ng Netflix gig din hihi. 🎬