Aahana Swrup
Directed by Malcolm D. Lee, ‘Strung’ is a tense mystery thriller film where a dream job turns into a nightmare seemingly at the tip of a hat. Laila is a violinist who is ripe with talent but also racked with fear and past trauma. Nonetheless, while her aspirations of playing with the Philharmonics remain a bucket list item for now, she finds employment as a private tutor at a wealthy family’s house. The ward under her charge is Zuri, a young girl who likes to hide behind a literal mask to keep her safe from the hurts of her past. Although her grandmother, Audra, who hires Laila, appreciates her presence around the house, the same cannot be said for the kid’s mother, Imani, who is pregnant with another. However, the real trouble begins when Laila comes face-to-face with Imani’s husband, a man with whom the violinist shares a torrid past. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Strung Plot Synopsis
Laila is an aspiring violinist who has been held back in her career by her crippling anxiety caused by the persisting trauma of a past loss. As a result, she’s currently crashing at her best friend, Jasmine’s, place while teaching music at a private middle school. One day after her class, she’s approached by a rich older woman, Audra, the grandmother of one of the students. Apparently, she was swept away by the teacher’s skills. Thus, she offers her a job on the spot as her granddaughter’s private music tutor. The next day, when the violinist arrives at Audra’s house for an informal interview, she realizes that the older woman is incredibly wealthy. Her granddaughter, Zuri, is also revealed to have severe allergies, which necessitate a hypoallergenic household. As a result, the future tutor is expected to stay at the estate in the guesthouse during the term of her employment.
Upon their first meeting, Zuri refuses to take off the white mask she seems to prefer hiding behind. Even so, she and Laila hit it off in a way that instills confidence in her ability to fulfill the role. Thus, with stellar pay and accommodation benefits, the violinist has no choice but to say yes to the job. The first few days of her employment are without a hitch. She coaches young Zuri, takes on a nanny-adjacent role in her life, and even though the mother, Imani, seems tense around her, there’s no actual threat there. That is, until Zuri’s stepfather and Imani’s husband, Marcus, makes an appearance. A short while before her employment with the family, Laila had a whirlwind hookup with a man she met at a diner in the city. As it turns out, that mystery one-night stand is none other than Audra’s son-in-law, Marcus. Initially, the violinist, who hides her recognition of the man from his family, wants to quit the job to avoid any complications.
Nonetheless, Marcus convinces her to stick around, insisting that her departure would make Imani suspicious, which wouldn’t be good for the baby. As such, Laila ends up sticking around for longer. Eventually, during an outdoor picnic, Zuri accidentally gets stung by a bee. Even though the violinist is able to inject an allergy pen in time, the incident sets off her own trauma about the death of her younger sister, Naya. That same night, she and Marcus end up in each other’s orbit and ill-advisedly hook up again in the guesthouse. Thus, a steamy affair begins between the tutor and the married man. Meanwhile, a strange woman sets off the alarm bells in Laila’s head when she tries to vehemently approach Zuri after school. However, she doesn’t have long to dwell upon the incident as Marcus sets her up for a huge opportunity.
For Imani’s baby shower, the family invites a prominent name from the Philharmonics and gives Laila the opportunity to perform a solo. Disastrously enough, someone had messed with her instrument to sabotage her performance. A note reveals Imani to be the saboteur in retaliation for the discovery of her affair with her husband. In the heat of the moment, Laila attacks the pregnant woman, making a scene at the party. In the aftermath, the tutor is fired from her position and expected to take her leave in a week after Zuri’s recital. By then, Laila gets suspicious about the family, especially once she discovers that the woman trying to reach Imani’s daughter is actually the grandmother from the kid’s paternal side. As a result, she and Jasmine find themselves undertaking an investigation that unearths a chilling secret about the family.
Strung Ending: Did RGB Really Die of an Overdose? How Did He Die?
Zuri’s deceased father is introduced into the narrative early on in the storyline. He was a well-known rap artist named RGB, whom Imani met on a trip to New York. Unfortunately, a few years after the birth of their daughter, the musician passed away as a result of a drug overdose. Worse yet, his daughter was the one who found him. In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, Zuri went selectively mute and developed severe anxiety complexes. Eventually, through extensive therapy, she became communicative again with the mask her father left her, becoming like a shield and a comfort blanket to her. However, while this is the story the family peddles and the public largely believes, there is another version of events. RGB’s mother, Charmaine, is of the vehement belief that her son was actually murdered in a plot to steal his wealth.
While alive, RGB was a big proponent of fostering community and using his money for the public’s good. Therefore, he had set up an after-school program financed via a hefty trust fund. After his death, this trust was amended by Imani’s family. Since then, Charmaine has been willfully kept away from her granddaughter’s life. Nonetheless, her accusations and suspicions are consistently written off as the conspiracies of a grieving mother. In the end, she ends up being entirely right. In the days leading up to RGB’s death, the rapper had a big fight with his music producer, Marcus. The musician could tell the other man was preying on his money and the future of his career. The two got in a big fight about the same. Later, Marcus poisoned his friend.
As it turns out, Marcus isn’t alone in this greed-laced ploy. He was working with his secret lover, Audra. Thus, after RGB’s death, which was made to look like an overdose, the duo got to control the future profits of his music by deciding how to monetize the bulk of his posthumous releases. Still, there was one prominent problem. The reason Marcus and RGB had their fight in the first place was because of the latter’s decision to leave all his wealth to his only daughter, Zuri. Thus, the pair of lovers now had to find a way to steal the kid’s inheritance. For the same reason, Audra arranged for Marcus and Imani to meet, fall in love, and get married. Afterward, they specifically sought out Laila as a nanny to orchestrate a child negligence accident, which would lead to Zuri’s death.
Why is Audra Trying to Kill Her Own Grandchild? Does She Succeed?
When Laila first hears of Charmaine’s theory, she can’t help but believe the woman. Therefore, upon returning to the estate, she tries to find the evidence that the grieving mother believes her son left behind for his daughter. This artifact turns out to be an audio tape hidden inside a music box that Imani keeps in her snake’s terrarium. Shortly after the discovery, Laila also stumbles upon Marcus and Audra hooking up, thus revealing the reality of their treachery. However, her attempts to bolt from the premises are foiled in the aftermath.
Instead, Laila is forced to attend the family dinner, in which she and Imani are swiftly drugged. Thus, the full extent of Audra’s plan is revealed. She has given dinner to Zuri, claiming that her tutor had prepared the plate. The dinner is actually chock-full of Zuri’s allergies that will lead to an inevitable death. Despite the kid being her own grandchild, Audra has nothing but contempt for her. She had always hated RGB and her daughter’s tryst with him. She doesn’t deem the rapper, and subsequently his daughter, good enough to carry the family name. Consequently, she has no qualms about killing Zuri for money. After the dinner is delivered to the kid, a drugged-out Laila is taken out to the beach, where her car will be driven into the ocean, giving the appearance of a suicide.
Marcus already has a suicide note prepared in her writing, claiming that the burden of accidentally causing Zuri’s death was too much, leading the violinist to her own demise. Fortunately, Laila is able to fend for herself against Audra’s hired hand. Therefore, she manages to return to the estate before the night is over. When she arrives at Zuri’s room, she realizes that the kid is actually only playing dead. The young girl is much more perceptive than her grandmother gives her credit for. Therefore, her gut instinct tells her that something is off about the dinner offering. Thus, she only took a few bites, stashed away the rest, saving her life until Laila could come rescue her.
Why Does Audra Kill Marcus?
Audra showcases an impressive scope for cold-bloodedness in the way she’s willing to sacrifice the lives of her daughter’s lover and her own grandchild in pursuit of monetary gain. Even so, through it all, Marcus seems to be the one true ally she has. Therefore, it’s all the more jarring when he becomes the recipient of one of her bullets. After Laila finds Zuri, alive and well, she tells the kid to hide while she looks for her mother. Nonetheless, both end up getting caught by Audra and Marcus, respectively. As the matriarch trains her gun on the violinist, Imani is woken up by the noise of their violent altercation. Still, by the time she can come to anyone’s defense, it might just be too late.
Or at least it would have been if it weren’t for Marcus’ brief but momentous lapse in immorality. As he brings Zuri to her grandmother, the latter instructs him to feed the fatal food to the child at any cost. In order for their plan to work, Zuri must die, and her death must have the ability ot be written off as a severe allergic reaction. While Marcus hadn’t hesitated to deliver his friend to his death, directly being responsible for a child’s death makes him take a pause. This pause is exactly what ends up costing him his life. Through his hesitance, Audra realizes that he isn’t entirely committed to her. Thus, she shoots him.
What Happens to Laila’s Hands? Will She Play Music Again?
After Marcus’ death, Audra’s power trip proves to be short-lived. Once she has Zuri, Imani enters the scene, creating a momentary distraction that allows her kid to run and Laila to pounce at the older woman. In the tussle that follows, Audra ends up accidentally firing a shot at the chandelier in the hall. In the end, the chandelier falls on the woman, glass shards piercing Audra, crushing her to death. Still, even though Zuri, Imani, and Laila emerge from the incident alive, they’re not all unscathed. Imani will have to live with the brutal reality of her mother’s evil.
Zuri, who has already undergone so much trauma, has another weight added to her psyche. While Laila’s wounds are also psychological, she also has physical battle scars to show for herself. In the final confrontation against Audra and Marcus, the violinist’s hands became a prime target for the duo, who used them to sadistically inflict pain on the musician. By the end of the film, Laila’s hands are still recovering from the worst of the injuries. However, she has also gained something from the harrowing experience, namely a lifelong bond with Imani and Zuri. Therefore, it isn’t hard to imagine that, much like how she has helped the mother-daughter duo, they will also stick with her on her road to recovery.
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