The Tony award winning play is brought to life in this big screen adaptation directed and starring Denzel Washington. In “Fences”, An African American father named Troy Maxson (Washington) struggles with race relations in the United States while trying to raise his family in the 1950s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and coming to terms with the events of his life. Troy was a famous Negro League baseball player whose life amounted to very little besides his loving wife Rose (Viola Davis) and their four beautiful children, one of which gaining fame as a local high school football star. As the movie continues, we learn that Troy deals with the inevitable comparisons between he and his son through teaching about the real importance of life, a lesson that conjures up feelings of jealousy within Troy’s own nearly finished life. “Fences” is rated PG-13 for thematic elements, adult language and some suggestive references.

Denzel Washington’s first directing effort in nearly a decade combines the best of the stage with the silver screen, producing an effort that brings the authenticity of a stage play to the big budget of a Hollywood production. Washington certainly knows where to aim the camera efficiently, but his stylized decisions to revolve the audience in-and-around these characters and conversations serve as the melting pot for the very pulse of what the movie entails. For about 90% of this movie, the film takes place around the household of this family, offering a simplistic and faithful approach to the very roots of the screenplay. There were many times during the film where this approach felt very much like I was watching a group of actors coming in and out of the frame with their ever-changing stories and situations. Washington never shoots just one actor, but a group of actors together, so as to understand the motivations and attitudes of every reaction that is being framed in each heart-pounding delivery. The decision to keep the musical score brief here is a beneficial one to Washington, who lets his audience feel the sharp pain of every silent pipe bomb that levels this mid 20th century American family, and gives in even more to that Broadway approach of letting the actors vibrate the audience, instead of some instruments that are just a cheap knock-off of human expression.

The story has its positives and negatives, but I appreciated the stretched scenes in runtime in their very attention to what goes into fitting character exposition, as well as tension being held in the air so long that its claustrophobic approach has no choice but to send shivers down our spines. Where this might hold a backlash in its audience is in that repetition to structure that braces us for the long haul each and every time we know it’s coming. If this movie doesn’t grab you in the first half hour, it’s going to be a long sit at 130 minutes during a build-build-build-explosion set up. This is very much a dialogue driven movie, so the excitement lies in the storytelling that sometimes overstays its welcome. Could these scenes be cut down? Absolutely, but this is an actors movie first, and because of that Denzel justifies that lengthy gap with Oscar worthy performances for the camera rolls on for as long as it rightfully should. This isn’t the best movie in terms of pacing, but I felt like each scene was valuable in that it was peeling back another layer to the complexity of Troy and what his past entailed, and never did I feel bored, just impatient to cut to the point. One subplot between Troy and his son is kind of forgotten about or not quite given the emphasis that it rightfully deserved, and it feels like some time has been edited out of the finished product to reach the opposite end result between them that the movie gave. I could’ve used more confrontation between them because it was in that aspect of the trailer that drove me strongly to the film.

With two leads who combine for a sizzling chemistry on every end of the emotional spectrum, Washington and Viola Davis are the very foundation for this fence. The two have spent many years involved with this play on-stage, so there were no two better actors to don the personalities of Troy and Rose for the biggest payoff of this thirty-plus year presentation. Washington is our most prominent actor of the movie, as the story revolves around his character and the many choices he makes that disrupts those around him. Washington plays Troy as charismatic, but firm in his disciplinary methods. It’s clear that something just isn’t right about this man, and as the movie continues, we start to see the punishment that he inflicts on his child because he failed a long time ago. Washington is such a spectacular actor that we can love and hate Troy at different times during this movie, but the real prize lies on his authentic approach to parenting that so many of us with forceful Fathers can relate to and understand. Troy is every adult child’s worst nightmare brought to life; a man who justifies no like in the love he displays. Davis felt very much like a predator to me in this movie. Not because of anything bad her character does, but in that she lies in the weeds for the right moment to attack her prey (Us), and when it happens it is powerfully moving. Davis’s Rose is the very backbone of this family, so it’s through her eyes where a lot of our allegiance lies. Viola is a surefire for the Oscar race, and I say that because her performance is achingly gripping as she unleashes the affliction of a broken woman with such courage and stamina. By the end of the movie, the film proves what we already knew about her methods; she’s a tour-de-force every time she steps on the screen, and her intensity will always elevate even the most flawed of Hollywood screenplays (See Suicide Squad).

“Fences” is one of few rare shining moments during a lackluster Christmas movie season. Through its play-turned-film approach, Washington dazzles us on and off the screen with a presentation that feels as earnest in the American dream as it does tragic in such a deconstruction. It’s like watching a live play between two actors who not only know the material, but lived it everyday of their lives; a chemistry too synthetic to ever be topped. Washington and Davis should put an end to the absence of black actors in Oscar categories.

8/10