Mel Richo

There were a lot of things I really liked about this movie. Taraji P. Henson was outstanding in the lead role — she brought so much depth and emotion to her character. The story had a lot of heart and felt very real. It follows a single, working-class Black mother struggling to survive while being constantly overlooked and mistreated. Watching her reach a breaking point was painful but also deeply relatable — I’m sure many people have been in her shoes or know someone who has. However, I did have some issues with how the movie was executed. The first few scenes — up until the bank — were quite strong. But the moment where the cop slammed into her car and spun her out in the middle of the road felt completely unrealistic. I understand they were trying to show corrupt policing, but it was done in a way that felt exaggerated and hard to believe. What also bothered me was how almost everyone around her seemed unbelievably passive or unintelligent, with the exception of the detective. It made the world of the movie feel less grounded. The scenes in the bank were mostly well done, but they started to drag. At one point, I actually considered skipping ahead to see if anything new would happen. The sudden changes in weather and lighting — from pouring rain to bright sunshine, then from day to night — felt jarring and poorly handled. And then there was the plot twist. While the idea behind it was interesting, the execution just didn’t work for me. I could understand her imagining her daughter still being at home and taking her to school — especially with the teacher’s strange reaction — but imagining the entire scene with child protection services removing her daughter felt like a stretch. On top of that, despite saying she didn’t trust her mother or sister, her mother somehow knew her daughter had passed away. Even the bank manager knew — despite having no connection to her beforehand — which didn’t make sense. Unfortunately, these inconsistencies and pacing issues really took away from the overall impact of the film for me.