Denzel Washington is one of the best action stars of our time; the box-office success of films like 2 GUNS, THE EQUALIZER, and THE GLORIOUS SEVEN speak for themselves. However, reducing him to that would be a grave mistake. The man graduated with a theatre and journalism degree, began his career as Othello on stage, and can be regularly seen on Broadway today and so it isn’t so surprising that he took a play as the template for his third directorial effort after ANTWONE FISHER and THE GREAT DEBATERS.

FENCES isn’t just another play, it is perhaps the most important work of Pulitzer Prize winning August Wilson who is still considered to be the most important African American playwright more than 10 years after his passing. It is essentially a simple marriage and family story set in the working-class milieu of 1950s Pittsburgh. Troy Maxson (Washington) works hard as a garbage collector, his relationship with his wife Rose (Viola Davis) is based more on pragmatism than passion, and his attitude towards his sons is strict and distant. Emotions are repressed rather than talked about in this small house on the city outskirts and broken dreams are drowned in alcohol. Washington played the role in Broadway and won a Tony for it in 2010. Not much has been changed for the film, which is why Wilson himself is credited as the screenwriter. After the opening scene FENCES never changes its setting. The reason FENCES ends up being more than a filmed play is the excellent acting (especially Davis) whose truthfulness perfectly services Washington’s focused directing.

Patrick Heidmann

Translation: Elinor Lewy