Other characters, such as Troy's mentally challenged younger brother Gabriel (Mykelti Williamson), don't have quite the same impact on the screen as on the stage. These two actors perfected their characters' chemistry during a 2010 limited Broadway run, which makes for a dynamic synergy on screen. It's an electric turn made all the more electric by Davis' amazing role as his long-suffering but dedicated wife, Rose. In his performance of Troy, Washington mines every possible nuance from a man who puts up so many emotional, ahem, fences. He is the architect of his own destruction, of course, which makes this flawed character so rich and undeniably human. Unfortunately for those in his orbit, these moments come between long stretches of him tearing down his wife and son as he takes out his bitterness with life on them. Undeniably charismatic, he flashes moments of warmth. His pro-baseball prospects derailed by a stretch in prison, he has survived the ebbs and flows of life, albeit not gratefully. His Troy, Fences's protagonist AND antagonist, is both a defeated man and often a defeater of other men.
Here, he gets sole credit as screenwriter and every beat of his seminal work remains intact. Though the writer speaks primarily from the African-American perspective and experience, his beautifully written (though not always beautiful) characters voice a multitude of universal truths. So too stands the work of Wilson, an always pointed, poetic, and meticulously crafted treatise on American life. It has been said that James Joyce never wasted a single word or piece of punctuation in his career-every last character was carefully chosen and meant something. And, before any classics muckety muck gets heated with this review for comparing the author of Fences to the Bard, let them be reminded: When it comes to "The Pittsburgh Cycle," you compare Shakespeare to Wilson. For much the same reason, Washington's latest turn in the director's seat deserves much the same response-if not more because his setting doesn't allow for as much latitude as the certain tale of a Danish prince. A limited release kept the film from making a profit in theaters, but glowing reviews and awards soon followed. When Kenneth Branagh spent $18 million adapting the entirety of Hamlet into a 4-hour H'Wood film in 1996, the move seemed rather bold. The works of William Shakespeare have appeared in a digest form pretty much since first hitting the screen. The long-form has become abridged to accommodate short attention spans. In our hyperlink-filled culture, there are far too many jumping off points before you get the whole story. In this PG-13-rated drama, a working-class African-American father (Washington) tries to raise his family (Viola Davis, Jovan Adepo) in the 1950s, while coming to terms with the events of his life.
In sparing not a word of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winner, Denzel Washington's brilliant unabridged treatment of his searing family drama packs an emotional wallop thanks to spot-on performances and a narrative that's allowed to breathe because it's not, well, fenced-in.