Review of Fences (2016) by Edeltraud — 29 Dec 2016

Terrible waste of some first-class acting -- it'll likely win Denzel an Oscar in a film nobody will want to see.

Apparently, August Wilson doesn't get writing for the movies -- the operative part of the word being MOVE. This felt like a play was filmed & not well. Denzel must have been too in awe of the guy to tell him to back off -- why the heck was Wilson the screenwriter anyway? He is clueless even if his play did win a Pulitzer. This movie is so claustrophobic (for no good reason) stuck in a backyard for 9/10ths of the time. Why not show Denzel at the bar with the women he takes up with? Why not show the kid on the football field & in high school? Why not let Lucinda come to life & be a confidant to Viola? Show the church ladies interacting. Show Denzel at the shop. Show all of it -- you can do that in the movies. Keeping all the vital parts of the story just talky-talky didn't work, had no value in this case. Didn't add mystery or help keep focus. Just plain boring. While Denzel & Viola's acting was superb -- Denzel's turn as director fell flat. Many shots made no sense. Feet on the steps ... long fade to black ... long shot suddenly shifting to tight shot. Again, I think he was scared to mess with Wilson's vision -- which really bogged down this movie. I hate to give this such a crummy rating, was really looking forward to seeing it, but IMO it was a drag.