Fences: Washington and Davis Bring Their Best

Denzel Washington. Nuff said. Viola Davis too though? Oh man, this sounds like greatness in the making. Wait…Denzel directed it too?! Take all my moneys… right now. Yeah, that was my thought process a few weeks ago, when I first saw the trailer…and I couldn’t have been more right.

Fences is based on the 1983 play by American playwright August Wilson. The movie is set in the 1950s, and tells the emotionally gripping tale of a father and his family living in Pittsburgh, PA while racial tensions are abuzz, but slowly rounding 3rd base to the 60s Civil Rights era we hear so much about. Denzel Washington knocks a 400ft grand slam out the park with this effort and I would be thoroughly disgusted and disappointed if he were to walk away from the Oscars without winning an acting or directing Academy Award. I’m not overselling this. It’s that damn good. It’s not often that a movie can revolve around one scene, but Fences does its play origins justice by focused about 80% of the movie exactly where the play took place, the Maxson backyard. Yes, a fence does in fact play a central role in the plot of the film but there’s so much more than this tale, oh so much more.

The majority of the film follows Troy Maxson’s journey as a father who means well, but has an incredibly hard time coming to terms with the direction America is moving in. As the 50s wind down and his son moves ahead with the progressive ideals of an evolving society, Denzel’s Troy must juggle the struggles of an agi…