Fences

Denzel Washington delivers a towering, nuanced performance as Troy, a middle-aged African-American working as a bin-man in 1950s Pittsburgh, putting up fences, literally and metaphorically, around himself and his house. It's a slow-burn drama that gradually draws you into its portrait of a man and his family (Oscar-winning Viola Davis plays his wife) trying to find their place in a changing world. It echoes other family dramas, A Raisin in the Sun and specifically Death of a Salesman in the failure of a father to communicate with his son (Jovan Adepo). But this is no traditional, nuclear family. Troy is a flawed yet sympathetic character, though some may find his transgressions, past and present, hard to accept. The script was written by the late August Wilson, adapting his own 1985 play. It comes across not so much as dated, rather as period drama, and it remains stagey. Washington treats the source material with a little too much reverence, although his commanding presence fills the screen.