The last of the nine Best Picture nominees I had yet to see is Fences, which is an adaptation of August Wilson’s play, directed by and starring Denzel Washington.  Like a lot of plays adapted for film it is very stagy at times, especially during the first ten or fifteen minutes, but then the drama moves outside where it has room to spread past its theatrical parameters.  It is certainly a well-acted piece, with Washington and Viola Davis earning acting nods, but it isn’t a grand slam home run (baseball is a big part of its character history).

Washington’s film focuses on his character, Troy Maxson, a former Negro Leagues player now working as a garbageman in 1950s-era Pittsburgh, but it also allows others time and attention for their stories to blossom.  His wife Rose (Davis) is fiercely protective of their son Cory (Jovan Adepo), Troy’s son (by his first wife) Lyons (Russell Hornsby), and his brother Gabriel (Mykelti Williamson), who has become increasingly delusional since a severe wound in World War II.  Troy’s best friend is his co-worker Jim Bono (Stephen Henderson), but a rift is beginning to form between them, and Cory is increasingly frustrated with his father’s coldness toward him.

Intense drama is generated as Troy gradually alienates everyone around him — and that is the film’s one flaw.  Troy loves Rose and his friend Jim, but the way he treats Cory is senselessly harsh.  Troy describes his own hellish relationship with his father, and how he could not wait to leave home as a teenager, but he says he wants to do better with his own boy — and yet everything he says and does pushes Cory farther away.  What I don’t understand or appreciate is how Troy acts so harshly with Cory (and, to a lesser extent, Lyons) but is happy-go-lucky with everyone else.  Eventually Troy says he doesn’t want Cory to grow up to be like him, but there are far better ways of pushing him in a different direction, and he should know that, since everybody keeps telling him that.  Troy is one of those highly-flawed characters that actors love to play, and Washington the actor does a terrific job making him real and convincing.  I guess I just don’t fully grasp the psychology of the guy.

Washington the director has even more success, providing everyone with ample screen time and focus, especially at the end, which takes place six years after the main story.  This coda puts a great many things into better perspective while reinforcing the message that family ties are paramount.  At 139 minutes, Fences approaches its Broadway length, where it won multiple awards (and from which all of the lead performers are repeating their roles).  It’s a good film, just not the great one for which I was hoping.  But watch for Viola Davis to grab her first Oscar this Sunday.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  21 February 2017.