Fences | Little White Lies

Fences

09 Feb 2017 / Released: 10 Feb 2017

An elderly man and woman embracing and smiling joyfully outdoors against a brick wall.
An elderly man and woman embracing and smiling joyfully outdoors against a brick wall.
4

Anticipation.

Two powerhouse actors sparring in a Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

3

Enjoyment.

The richness and intensity doesn’t make the jump from stage to screen.

3

In Retrospect.

Washington is customarily magnetic, but this is Davis’ film.

Vio­la Davis steals the show in this faith­ful stage adap­ta­tion from direc­tor Den­zel Washington.

This is a filmed ver­sion of a 1983 play by August Wil­son, with Den­zel Wash­ing­ton in the lead role and the director’s seat. From its detailed, ver­bose open­ing phras­es, it’s clear that this is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to watch great actors going through their expres­sive motions. Long takes, longer mono­logues, one cen­tral loca­tion, very lit­tle con­ces­sion to con­sid­er­ing how the tools of cin­e­ma might enhance this rois­ter­ing, anguished text. In fact, it’s the del­i­cate flour­ish­es that dent the illu­sion of real­i­ty which, in turn, brings the whole thing down.

As an(other) impas­sioned speech surges towards its inevitable crescen­do, sen­ti­men­tal music ris­es in the sound mix, sign­post­ing emo­tions that do not need sign­post­ing. As Wash­ing­ton shim­mies from the inte­ri­or of a small house into the yard (where much of the key dra­ma takes place), the cam­era pans down the steps offer­ing a close-up on his feet. It’s a small touch but it stands out – more as an attempt to make the pres­ence of the cam­era felt, how­ev­er briefly, than some­thing that adds to the sto­ry. Yet when Wash­ing­ton sim­ply points the cam­era at his actors, trains it on their faces, and watch­es them as they talk, he inevitably lands on moments of magic.

This is most fas­ci­nat­ing as a film about annun­ci­a­tion and inter­pre­ta­tion. The gram­mar is as impor­tant (if not more­so) than the words – where to pause, where to hes­i­tate, where to pull back and re-start a thought, where to get loud, where to go qui­et, when to inter­rupt, when to pass the baton.

Fences is the sto­ry of a surly, charis­mat­ic down-and-out named Troy Max­on (Wash­ing­ton) – an ex- base­ball play­er-turned-dust­man in 50s sub­ur­ban Pitts­burgh and king of his mod­est cas­tle. On a Fri­day, he swag­gers home with his bud­dy, Bono (Stephen Hen­der­son), slams down his pay­cheque of $76.42 on the din­ing table, and sips from a pint of gin – his unwind­ing rit­u­al. His wife, Rose, is played by Vio­la Davis, and she is secret­ly the film’s main char­ac­ter. She doesn’t just tol­er­ate Troy, she adores him and it’s easy to see why. He’s a fiendish racon­teur, able to tan­gle an unsus­pect­ing lis­ten­er into his fan­ci­ful yarns in an instant.

The char­ac­ter is a ram­bunc­tious gift that Wash­ing­ton duly accepts and unwraps, per­haps a lit­tle too overzeal­ous­ly. As a man he’s a force of nature, as a char­ac­ter, there are no con­trasts. He’s an arm­chair activist, ful­ly aware of racial inequal­i­ty in Amer­i­ca but unwill­ing to make things bet­ter for any­one oth­er than himself.

It is Davis who makes this film sing. She is an actor who has made a habit of find­ing untapped depths in even the most minor, poor­ly writ­ten of char­ac­ters (of which this is not one). Wilson’s dia­logue hands her the oppor­tu­ni­ty to get the emo­tion­al pis­tons fir­ing. What makes her per­for­mance so effec­tive is that the sto­ry mon­i­tors a change in tem­pera­ment. Her anger is locked inside until her scal­ly­wag hus­band even­tu­al­ly rips it from her chest. Her tran­si­tion from duti­ful, orna­men­tal bride to bruised avenger is invig­o­rat­ing to observe.

Where Troy’s heart is always vis­i­ble in plain sight, Rose is the more qui­et­ly trag­ic fig­ure. She sup­press­es her tor­ment. It fes­ters inter­nal­ly. It’s a sto­ry about dig­ni­ty and self-hatred, awed men and abused women, a vision of a radi­ant, hope­ful Amer­i­ca and the depress­ing, com­plex, apoc­a­lyp­tic reality.

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