Review of Fences (2016) by Ken C — 08 Feb 2017

From a play about an African-American family in Pennsylvania in the 1950's, Fences is a powerful story of flawed but often loving characters with standout performances, especially from Viola Davis & Denzel Washington.

While it was obviously a powerful and moving play on the live stage, it was not transferred to the screen very well. My biggest criticism is that it was filmed without any cinematic elements that make screen different from stage.

No interesting cinematography, just mostly a static camera filming people standing & talking. Essentially no musical score. No edits to flashbacks or even to different scenes or locations. It's as if they had a camera filming a stage production.

I was tempted to give it 2 stars out of 5 but the performances and the story itself are so compelling I give it 3).