Fences

FENCES

Director : Denzel Washington
Year : 2017
Genre : Drama
Rating : ***1/2

Back in 2010, Denzel Washington and Viola Davis starred in a revival production of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize winning play 'Fences'. Immediately opening to rave reviews and taking Broadway by storm, 'Fences' would go on to win a number of prestigious theatrical accolades including a Drama Desk Award and a Tony.

Now in 2017, Denzel Washington hopes to turn that Tony into an Academy Award by directing himself and Davis in a cinematic version of the much revered stage play. The effort certainly seems to have paid off with 'Fences' being nominated for a brace of Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress to name just a few while critical reception for the movie has been unanimously positive - the American Film Institute itself named 'Fences' as one of the 10 best movies of the year.

However, much like a number of the big contenders of this awards season, I didn't get the hype surrounding the movie. Yes, the performances are terrific and the screenplay (Wilson has received a posthumous Oscar nod for his adaptation of his own theatrical source) is engrossing, thoughts provoking and extremely well constructed. But at 2 hours and 20 minutes, I found 'Fences' to be plodding and sometimes downright infuriating - predominantly thanks to the characterisation of it's lead protagonist who is easily the most dislikeable of the year as well as the notably un-cinematic nature of the piece as a whole.

Set in the ramshackled streets of 1950's Pittsburgh, 'Fences' follows the life of Troy (Washington), a working class waste collector who is failing to come to terms with his turbulent and troubling past. Despite the presence of his beloved wife Rose (Davis) and the constant companionship of his best friend Jim Bono (Stephen Henderson), Troy's mental health begins to falter as the pressures that govern his world slowly take over his mind and soon he is lashing out at everyone around him including his family, his friends and, most notably, his young son Cory (Jovan Adepo) who refuses to follow in his fathers drunken footsteps and who ultimately bears the brunt of Troy's relentless self-righteousness.

As was the case with Wilson's play, 'Fences' deals with some very tough issues - racial injustice and domestic violence to name just a few - and Washington must be given credit for filming these scenes with a reverence and dignity that beautifully accentuates the power of Wilson's extraordinary dialogue. Both Davis and Washington do outstanding work throughout the film and I'm absolutely sure that come the big night, one or both of these hugely talented performers will walk home with the gold statuette. But as a cinematic experience, 'Fences' doesn't compare to many or all of it's fellow Best Picture nominees due to it's obviously stagey aesthetic - a point that is only amplified by a distinct lack of a non-diegetic soundtrack and its use of limited, featureless sets.

Denzel Washington has been known for playing the bad guy buts its hard to think of another character as utterly hateful in his impressive filmography as that of Troy Maxson. Admittedly at first, he's a bit of playful rascal - cracking naughty jokes with his best friend and making overblown gestures of affection towards his devoted better half. But as the movie progresses, we learn more about Troy's personality and the more we get to know about him, the less we like about him. But things really come to ahead at around the half way mark - clearly the scene that would precede the interval of the stage play - where Troy announces a revelation that is so dreadful and thoughtless that any good will towards him is immediately dissolved. It is all power to Washington as an actor that he can make a character like Troy so unlikeable but still watchable but that doesn't take away from the fact that he frequently turns 'Fences' into an endurance test. At least on stage, there is a considerable distance between the character and the audience as well as a lengthy intermission to catch your breath. In a cinema, there is no escape or room for emotional respite. 

Thankfully, Washington's brash performance is tempered by an extraordinary supporting turn from Viola Davis who simply dazzles as Troy's put-upon wife Rose. For me, her astonishing performance is what makes 'Fences' unmissable, a key scene of unrelenting grief and fury is a magical moment of tour de force acting and one that is sure to win her that Oscar that has eluded her for so long. 

As a showcase for two titanic performances, 'Fences' is nigh-on incomparable. The conviction and dedication of its actors is beyond spellbinding and the subject matter of it's highly (and quite rightly) revered source is just as incendiary as it was when the play first premiered over three decades ago. But it's very hard to fully recommend a film when its main character is so utterly without redemption that it almost becomes unbearable to watch and when it is very clear that this was a project designed for the theatre and not for the cinema auditorium. The stage and the screen are two very different mediums and in my opinion, with its overblown soliloquys and restricted settings, 'Fences' doesn't quite manage to successfully make the jump.