In the thriller “Strung” — directed by Malcolm D. Lee — an elegantly coifed stranger overhears Laila (the singer-songwriter Chloe Bailey) playing the violin for a classroom of schoolchildren and offers her a job tutoring her granddaughter ahead of a piano recital. “When you started to play, I just had to stop and listen,” Audra (a fabulous all-in Lynn Whitfield) oozes.
Laila has been crashing at her best friend’s home, practicing for auditions and working on compositions. She’s also been having nightmares about the young sister she lost. She could use some economic stability, and a place to stay.
Even before the gates to the mansion swing open, Laila is wowed. Then she meets Zuri (Romy Woods). That her musical ward wears a striking white-painted African wooden mask — all the time — may be the first, but is hardly the last sign of familial strain in this upscale, increasingly unstrung, household.
The mansion’s other inhabitants include Imani (Anna Diop), Audra’s pregnant daughter and the actual owner of the house, and Marcus (Lucien Laviscount), Imani’s husband. Zuri is the child Imani had from another relationship, a rapper who was Marcus’s best friend.
There’s something conspiratorial afoot — it’s not just between the characters. The filmmaker clearly wants the viewer to note the lingering handshake, the briefly twitching eye. And he overwhelms more subtle themes — about the trauma of unexpected loss, about honoring intuition — with the soapiest dangerous liaison. “Strung” doesn’t exactly unravel, but it delivers more of the pleasures of a near-camp mash up than the emotional stakes of a psychological thriller.
Strung Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 59 minutes. Watch on Peacock.
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