Fences

Fences is based on a Pulitzer Prize winning play, with a screenplay from the original playwright, which unfortunately does not translate well to screen. Bolstered by great performances from the two leads, Denzel Washington (who also directs) and Viola Davis, the film never shakes its theatrical roots to be become truly cinematic. The film has been met with wide-spread critical acclaim and an Oscar nomination (I have my theory on why this was nominated but I’ll probably save it for a think piece post-Oscar night) but, for this writer, the film never found its focus. 

Troy Maxson (Washington) collects garbage for a living. He just about makes ends meet for his wife Rose (Davis) and son living in 1950s Pittsburgh. However, they live in a pressure cooker situation. Troy is an old-school hard worker and struggles with keeping up with the modern day. His son shun chores to be part of the school football team, which to his father’s annoyance. Troy’s brother suffers from mental health issues after an accident in World War II. But Troy’s personality just about keeps all this in check. However, a secret about Troy is revealed that shows his inner frustrations about his work and home life, which threatens to rip the family apart. 

The film’s problem is that it never shakes off its theatre roots. On stage, an intimate surrounding can be created where the audience is getting an up-close and personal look at a set of characters. Having a small piece of set, such as the backyard of a house, works on stage for having characters enter and exit scenes and helps us to concentrate on the character's drama and understand the intensity of a situation But cinema is different – it has a different language to theatre, which the filmmakers don't seem to have understood. The exact same set up is used in the film, where we have to endure a near two and a half hours of the same backlot set filmed in static, uninteresting shots as characters exit and enter scenes. We are constantly reminded that this story was planned for a more confined space. The static camera work and one-set location was probably done so the audience could engage fully with the actors’ performances (the lead actor is also the director after all) but there is nothing cinematic about this. I almost cheered when we moved to a new location or the camera did something new with its set ups. The film loses the immediacy and intensity of the stage and is not cinematic for these elements to shine through a new way, with so many opportunities in the adaptation. Show the degradation of Troy’s work. Show the push and pulls that bring him to make the decisions he does. Be brave enough to move away from the source material whilst remaining faithful. One only needs to compare this film to Moonlight, also based on a play, to see the cinematic potential in adapting something for film originally intended for the stage. I reminded of the very basics of filmmaking – show, don't tell.  

Now this style may not have bothered me so much if the script focus was better. Fences’ biggest problem is that it doesn't know where its focus lies. The first half spends too much time establishing these characters becoming very repetitive in its step ups. Dialogue is constantly thrown at the audience leaving very little breathing room. Troy regales his friends with stories from his childhood, his time as a criminal and his shot at being a baseball star but the dull style means the scenes never really engage the way they should (again, these anecdotes probably work really well on stage). The actual plot only really kicks in during second half, which takes an unexpected turn. Troy reveals to Rose that he is having a child with another woman, who he has been seeing secretly. Later, this ‘other woman’ dies in child birth (completely off-screen) and leaves Troy and Rose with a baby girl to raise. This is an abrupt turn, which only comes into focus when a character makes an off-handed comment to Troy. I imagine this is abrupt in the stage play as well but again the language of theatre would allow these scenes to breathe and communicate through the staging. All of this is woven in with father and son conflicts, prejudice and changing attitudes towards African-Americans in the 1950s (this is only brought up occasionally in the film), work vs. life balance, mental health issues, Christian motifs and adulatory. There is a really strong character piece in here somewhere about the effects of toxic masculinity but Fences never leaps off the screen the way it should.  

The acting of Fences is uniformly excellent but I have to come to the realisation that a film needs more than that to be truly great. The language of cinema is a powerful tool and can be used in conjunction with excellent acting. Despite their similarities, film and theatre are very different. I imagine Fences working well on stage, as an intimate drama about a man on the edge (and would probably have enjoyed a lot more) but the film is too reverent to the source material. There's a nagging feeling that this belongs on stage. There are moments scattered in the film where the potential is there for a moving piece (the highlights being the scene where Troy says he doesn't love/like his son, his drunken outbursts in the final act and revealing the truth to Rose) but sadly these are few and far between. There are plenty of wordy dramas out there that are excellent but they work because the dialogue and style go hand in hand. I recommend putting up a fence around this one. 

Rating: 5/10