Fences is the
third directorial effort by acclaimed actor Denzel Washington and is an
adaptation of the August Wilson play of the same name. The film stars
Washington alongside Viola Davis, Stephen Henderson, Jovan Adepo, Russsell
Hornsby, and Mykelti Williamson. Washington and Davis have famously performed
this play on stage prior to making this film. Overall, I found that this film
was wholly built around two superb performances but was otherwise an extremely
mediocre film as a whole.
Beginning with the positives, I must give due praise to the
performances by Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. For his part, Washington
plays this complex and despicable character with such a degree of excellence
that you’re absolutely drawn to him while at the same time hating him. It is an
extremely complicated relationship as an audience member and Washington’s
excellent performance makes it work. Davis somehow manages to outshine even
Washington however. Playing a wife trying her best to be the best wife she can
be while dealing with some horrible acts and things go on around her, Davis
plays a vulnerable but strong character. She embodies this motherly character
so well that when she’s going through pain you really just want to be with her
and help her in whatever way you can. She doesn’t just lie down though. She has
a perspective and Davis really highlights the power that this character that
might otherwise just be a nothing figure.
These performances live at the center of the movie but they
would be nothing without a superb screenplay. This film is almost wall to wall
dialogue and August Wilson’s work makes this film as good as it can be, and
creates the grounds to bring out the quality of performances. There are so many
emotional moments and they manage to earn them all by virtue of how this film
is written. For its length and general mediocrity, this film was never boring and,
in a film reliant on dialogue, that is a sign of great writing underneath it
all.
Fences ended up
disappointing me because I had hoped for so much more. And given the
performances and story we deserved so much more. This film does nothing special
in terms of filmmaking. It honestly felt like Washington shot the play and put
it out for public release. The settings are drab and the camera movement
equally so. There is so little going on creatively behind and around the camera
that the film ended up feeling very bland and uninteresting. If I were to make a
side by side comparison of a film that does a similar thing better, I would
point readers to Steven Spielberg’s Bridge
of Spies. That film is similarly very dialogue heavy, but Spielberg uses
strong directorial techniques to highlight things and to make extended scenes
between two people consistently engaging and visually pleasing. Fences made with that kind of vision
would, I think, be a great movie. Sadly, it wasn’t.
On top of lacking directorial work, most of the performances
outside of Washington and Davis were forgettable. Stephen Henderson was
effective, certainly. Mykelti Williamson also had an interesting performance
and was pretty decent. The most disappointing was from Jovan Adepo who plays
Cory, Washington and Davis’ son. This character has a part on par with the
drama and weight for Washington and Davis but Adepo did not answer the call in
the same way. He wasn’t bad, certainly, but his performance wasn’t special
which it really should have been given the underlying content therein.
Overall, I found Fences
to be a fairly mediocre picture centered around two excellent performances.
There is a lot of good stuff going for Fences
and I had hoped it would turn out better than it did. Washington and Davis
deserved better for the work they did on this film and it is worth seeing if
only for them.
Ryan’s Score: 7/10
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