Fences *** (2016, Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Stephen Henderson, Jovan Adepo, Russell Hornsby, Mykelti Williamson) – Movie Review

Fences (2016) is an uneasy, stagey and set-bound stage to screen drama of a distinguished hit Broadway play. But the movie is memorable, however, for its characters, drama and dialogue and, especially, for its performances.

Denzel Washington re-creates his unlikely stage role of a dustman, for heaven’s sake, a working-class African-American father raising his family in the Fifties and handling the events of his life. Honestly, it’s really hard to imagine and accept Washington as a dustman.

August Wilson writes the screenplay based on his own play. I get that it is a very good play but, as director, Washington makes virtually no attempt to make it cinematic, giving us a hard time in the cinema for a long 140 minutes. There’s a brief attempt in the opening scene to be cinematic as Washington’s camera’s follow his character and his trash truck on its rounds before ending up at his home. This is a good start.

But then, Washington seems just too give up, shooting almost entirely on a set of the hose interior or the garden exterior. These are the backdrops for a lot of talk, admittedly much of it high class.

In a showy, tour-de-force, Washington relishes his huge star character role part as Troy Maxson, playing a very flawed, rather unsympathetic individual whom the play, his character’s wife and God are apparently easily able forgive. Has anyone realised how awful Troy is? He is abusively bossy, cruelly unfaithful to his wife and bullying to his son Cory (Jovan Adepo). Yet we are supposed to forgive him and even like him and admire him.

Of course, as played by the charismatic, powerful Washington, he is easy to forgive, like him and admire, but is that really the point? The point seems to be some Christian forgiveness, which leads us, after a very long time, to the film’s very treacly ending, played up for all it’s worth in Washington’s unsubtle handling.

However, it is Viola Davis who steals the film as his loyal wife Rose Maxson, agonised by a loyalty Troy doesn’t return when he suddenly reveals to her he is two-timing her with another woman and another child. Always seemingly calm and in control, the power behind the throne, she breaks down in appalling despair at the news, in a heartbreaking scene, perfectly handled, a great emotional moment in cinema.

I found myself entirely taking sides with the son and the wife here, and I don’t think I’m supposed to. It’s not about sides in argument. Nevertheless, I found myself wishing the nice son and wife had a father and husband like Troy’s dustman co-worker and best friend Jim Bono, played with quiet charisma and great likeability by Stephen Henderson.

Davis won the 2017 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture. It’s hard entirely to agree that this is actually a supporting performance but I’m thrilled she won anyway.

The 1983 play Fences first opened on Broadway in 1987, winning the Tony Awards for Best Play, Best Actor (James Earl Jones), and Best Featured Actress (Mary Alice).  It is the sixth play in Wilson’s ten-part Pittsburgh Cycle.

It was re-staged on Broadway in 2010, winning the Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Play, Best Actor Denzel Washington, and Best Actress (Viola Davis). Washington performed the play 114 times at the Cort Theatre in New York. All five adult actors in the revival reprise their roles in the film.

August Wilson’s script for the film was still incomplete when he died in 2005. Producer Scott Rudin hired the Tony award-winning and Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner to finish Wilson’s screenplay. Kushner receives only a producer credit.

It was the 2016 Christmas Day treat in the US and is released in the UK on 10 February 2017.

It is nominated for four Oscars: Best Motion Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay (August Wilson in a posthumous nomination). Viola Davis won its sole Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

On a medium-sized budget of $24,000,000, it has taken $52,000,000 at the US box office.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review

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