Fences Review

3.0 Stars

 

Every boy and girls has dreams of what they'd like to be when they grow up: an astronaut, a ball player, a ballerina, a princess.  Fences is the story of Troy Maxson (Denzel Washington) who had a dream to play baseball.  Growing up in the early 1900's, that dream was impossible for him as African Americans weren't allowed to play professional baseball until Jackie Robinson broke through that racial wall in 1947.  By that time, the league deemed Maxson too old to play and he continued his career as a sanitation worker in Pittsburgh to provide for his family.  He tried to be the good husband and father, but the pain of missed opportunity grew to resentment and anger over the years putting a strain on his family.

Troy's wife, Rose (Viola Davis) tells him that their son, Cory (Jovan Adepo) is being looked at by a college recruiter to play football.  Troy is set against it.  Being a talented baseball player never got him anything.  Tensions grow so deep in their family, Cory actually confronts his father asking why he never liked him.  Troy's response is "What law says I have to like you?"  His job is to put food on the table and a roof over their heads.  He advises Cory that he can't go through life worrying about if anybody likes him. And that's just one of many problems facing the Maxsons.  Troy's other son is a struggling musician who stops by regularly for money.  Troy's brother suffered a major head injury while in the military. Troy is summoned to meet with union representatives after questioning his boss why only white men get to drive the sanitation trucks.  And Troy is also dealing with other demons finding solace at another woman's home. 

Fences has been nominated for 4 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Leading Actor (Denzel Washington), Best Leading Actress (Viola Davis) and Best Adapted Screenplay (August Wilson).  August Wilson was an American playwright who wrote a series of ten plays called The Pittsburgh Cycle.  He won two Pullitzer Prizes for drama.  Fences earned him one of those.  Wilson was always revered for his portrayal of African Americans with humor, drama, and real brutal honesty.  Washington and Davis brought every ounce of emotion from his writing and from the era to life in a film that is a slow, methodical, character-driven realistic tragedy of American Pittsburgh in the 1950's.  

I gave what looked like a beautifully and sincerely acted drama a 4 Star Prediction.  At this point, I need to remind you of what my rating scale means.  5 Stars does not necessarily mean a movie is Oscar-worthy.  It's more about my own personal preferences and the likelihood of my owning said movie and watching it repeatedly.  By the same token 3 or 4 stars does not mean I hated the movie.  In fact, I can see a movie and agree with it being nominated or even winning awards and still only give it 3 stars if seeing it once is enough for me.  With that in mind, I'm giving Fences 3 Stars.  Directed by and starring Denzel Washington, the August Wilson play was literally brought directly from the stage to the big screen.  It had the same feeling as watching Oklahoma or Glengarry Glen Ross or Six Degrees of Separation.  That's not a bad thing, but it felt very much like watching a Broadway production on a movie screen rather than a screenplay that was adapted for a motion picture.  And Washington and Davis gave performances that would surely earn either of them a Tony Award Nomination.  Though I don't disagree with their nominations for Oscars, I don't see either of them winning for their roles, nor do I see Fences taking home the trophy for Best Picture of the year.  It was real, beautiful, smart, funny, tragic and wonderful; but for me, once was enough.  If this was a stage performance making a tour like Wicked or Phantom of the Opera, I could see wanting to catch it again the next time it's in town.  Being a major motion picture, though, I doubt I'll be watching it again and I'm sure I won't be owning Fences.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.