Fences

This review may contain spoilers!

This film has such an incredible African-American ensemble cast, it's just a shame the script and visual style is so shoddy. I would give Fences a 4/10.

The aspect of the narrative that really stood out for me is how African-American people and communities were treated post-World War II; it made for one of the more interesting discussions that took place over the duration of the film, in particular how permanently disabled veterans were affected.

Viola Davis, who played Rose Maxson, is a powerful leading women in this film; her timid nature around the presence of Washington is very well portrayed but the best scene is where she screams her pain and outrage right at him after his role confesses that he's in an affair. Jovan Adepo, who played Cory, is a real up and comer to watch out for; his tough persona in the face of Washington's role as an abuser is a powerful dynamic to watch. Russell Hornsby, who played Lyons, is one smooth talking character in this film; Hornsby creates a figure who has a real sense of self and his place in the world. Mykelti Williamson, who played Gabriel, portrays a mentally disabled character very well for this feature; he's an erratic character who can be filled with delight and happiness in one moment but be startled into bouts of terror and despair the next. Saniyya Sidney, who played Raynell, is making her mark as quite the stand out child performer this year; she's the bright spark this film needed to have for it's final scenes of the film.

However the best performance came from Denzel Washington, who played Troy Maxson. This was a deeply flawed character and Washington absolutely knew that, knew exactly the qualities he needed to portray him just right. At the high moments of the film we see a very charismatic figure, who has great chemistry with the other roles onscreen and tells great jokes or stories. Yet there's a deep bitterness to this role, a growing resentment and anger at his son's for not falling into line. Washington brings forth a man whose morals are at best questionable and at worst outright deplorable, yet the way he selfishly feels he can defend his actions is probably his worst quality. It's no wonder that everyone he is close to at the start of the film has been driven away by the end, but in Washington's hands you get one hell of a compelling performance.

This is a very slow paced narrative and all the monologue styled delivery does not help, clearly the transition between stage and screen wasn't worked enough and what we're left with is the main protagonist speaking continuously for most of the film. If the non-stop barrage of one man talking wasn't enough you also have to deal with how much of a scumbag the guy is, the film doesn't focus enough on the side characters and you certainly don't empathise with the lead. He's so detached from reality and makes decisions that are far too hard to respect that you grow distant from the content of the film. When the film finally ends you get the ultimate slap in the face; the story glorifies this horrible protagonist, even informing characters who he abused to honour him which really just felt like the writer had no understanding of how to write characters and character development. The cinematography was dull, the set pieces were simple and the camera work clearly followed suit and didn't want to take risks. The editing looked out of date, the constant ude of fades or cutting to black only served to drag out an already dull film. The score was sparingly used to say the least, it also had a tone that just didn't connect with what the film was about or trying to convey.

Stephen Henderson, who played Jim Bono, was constantly being dwarfed by the other great talents of this film; Henderson really didn't push his role or run with any of his moments in the spotlight which only made him feel like a background performer.