Fences - Hated It

Stars: Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Stephen Henderson
Run Time: 2 hours, 19 minutes

The Movie

The majority of this film is just about an older man who is trying to raise his family while trying to accept his life as the way it is. It’s the 1950’s and Troy (Denzel Washington) has a grown son who comes by every pay day to “borrow” money, a son in high school who wants to play football, a wife Rose (Viola Davis) who he has been married to for 18 years, and a job where he picks up trash each day. Since it’s the 1950’s segregation of races is strong throughout the United States and it’s getting to Troy. He is bitter towards the world and stuck in the old ways. We find out that he was on his own at the age of 14 and is most likely why he acts the way he does. 

​Troy is not a nice guy. He doesn’t listen to anyone’s opinion and ensures that what he says is what happens. His teenage son wants to play football, but Troy won’t let him. Being a teenager, he rebels, but Troy is still able to ensure that he gets what he wants. This puts a damper on his relationship with Rose, a woman who just wants her child to be happy and to follow his dream. Troy and his best friend, Mr. Bono (Stephen Henderson) have many talks in the back yard of his house, where he is supposed to 

be building a fence for Rose, about how his life was long ago. Then all of a sudden, something serious happens that leads to an even more gap between the married couple. Troy seems to be pushing everyone away from him by the way he acts and plummets more and more into what I believe is depression. ​

Liked Its & Hated Its

• I hated the long drawn out scenes. Denzel’s character went on and on for what felt like a full 20 minutes about one topic.
• I hated the run time.
• I hated how he just complained the entire time.
• I hated that there really wasn’t much of a plot. It was just Troy complaining and talking constantly and everyone else crying or being scared of him
• I liked Gabe (Mykelti Williamson), Troy’s brother, who has some sort of mental disorder due to his time in the military. He was always happy.
• I liked the acting. I though Denzel was great, but I would say Viola stole the show for me. The scene after Troy tells her the big news was amazing and very emotionally raw.
• I liked when he was at the bar. They FINALLY picked a different location to film.
• I hated the scene where he is yelling at the Devil and Death... though I also kind of liked it since it reminded me of War Room
• And I liked the ending scene… Troy wasn’t there to complain about anything. 

​Rating

​I’m going to give this movie a “Hated It.” I was not very happy that I spend 2 ½ hours of my life watching that in the movie theater, good thing the only showing was at 9am so it only cost me $5. I felt like there was no purpose of it, other than to shine the light on how life was for African Americans during segregation times. I would not watch it again. I base my ratings on how much I enjoyed the film and how the film makes me feel after I’m done watching it. Regardless of my thoughts on Fences, I can’t deny that it was beautifully acted and deserved the nominations that it received. 
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