Review of Fences (2016) by Justin B — 03 Jan 2017

Fences has no shot of working without Denzel Washington. I understand that the screenplay comes from a play, but it didn't translate well onto the big screen. Each scene was dragged out much longer than necessary and the audience was forced to watch Denzel Washington's character react to every situation exactly how we would expect him to react (selfish, angry, drunk, with occasional insight).

Then by the time Washington's character is dead, he still doesn't fully understand how much his actions have effected everyone around him. And then at his funeral all of the family members give a "Its okay at least he tried" to justify his actions and demons.

What? It was an interesting character study that will give Denzel Washington another Oscar nomination, but I'm still not completely sure what I learned or gained from this character study.