Fences review: Denzel Washington and Viola Davis are flawless in this stunning adaptation of August Wilson’s 1980s Pulitzer-winner.
Fences review by Paul Heath, February 2017.
Fences review
Denzel Washington leads the cast and takes a trip behind the camera to direct for the first time since Antwone Fisher for Fences, the big-screen adaptation of August Wilson‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name.
In the film, Washington plays Troy Maxson, a Pittsburgh native and former baseball player with all of the makings of a professional career ahead of him. However, his dreams of joining a pro team are halted almost immediately as the rules stipulated at the time prevent black players from signing. Decades on from those ambitious younger days we find Troy in the 1950s, working a dead-end job as a sanitation worker with only Friday to look forward to. He works alongside long-time friend Jim Bono (Stephen Henderson) and comes home to his loyal wife Rose (Viola Davis), whiling away his down time in either the local bar or in his back garden where he reminisces of his glory days. His loss of glory in the game slowly eats away at him as he attempts to continuously embrace family life with Rose and their teenage son Cory (Jovan Adepo), who himself is showing promise in pro-football, the colleges already looking like the path he is destined to take. With his lost dreams clouding his influence on his son, Troy chooses a very different path for himself and a looming major life event threatens to change the dynamics between all of the Maxson family for good.
Fences review
August Wilson’s play first opened on Broadway all of the way back in 1983. In the original production James Earl Jones earned huge acclaim for his portrayal of Troy Maxson, as did Washington himself many years later in the 2010 revival. Viola Davis stood alongside him as Rose in that New York run as well, so it is only fitting after over 100 performances to sell-out crowds that the duo are involved in this, the first cinematic outing for the well-regarded work. Wilson wrote the screenplay for the film as well, and with its superb supporting cast it has all the ingredients for an all-out success, which thankfully, it largely is.
Washington the actor is outstanding. The very word-heavy work is devoured by the screen icon, ever syllable rolling from the tongue of the screen stalwart, only just overshadowed by the equally enigmatic, emotional turn of Davis as Rose – perhaps a career best for the already accomplished actress, and a cert for the supporting female actor at this year’s Academy Awards. A key scene two-thirds in cements her worth, Davis using the power of expression as Rose’s feelings change over the course of just a few seconds – an absolute masterclass. With stunning and perhaps under-recognised support from the likes of Mykelti Williamson as Troy’s damaged brother Gabriel, Russell Hornsby as Lyons and Adepo as Cory, Fences boasts perhaps the best ensemble you’ll see in any film this year. All are virtually flawless.
Fences review
Washington to the director makes this look easy. Obviously comfortable and over-familiar with the material, the helmer of just two other features (the aforementioned Antwone Fisher in 2002 and The Great Debaters five years later in 2007), Washington not only brings out the best from its actors, but has also assembled quality in terms of the many other elements needed to bring a motion picture to the screen. Utilising the brilliance of Charlotte Bruus Christensen’s camera and Hughes Winbourne‘s (The Help, The Pursuit Of Happyness) editing, the film is engrossing, very well paced for its running time, and always involving.
Clearly limited by the source material in its setting, the film does come across as theatrical rather than cinematic in places, possibly due its dialogue-driven story and three quarters of proceedings taking place in Troy and Rose’s garden.
An enthralling, very witty and captivating drama with themes very relevant in the modern world, unbelievably, and worryingly, sixty years on from when it is set.
Fences review by Paul Heath, February 2017.
Fences is released in UK cinemas from Friday 17th February 2017.
