Synopsis
In 1950s Pittsburgh, a frustrated African-American father struggles with the constraints of poverty, racism, and his own inner demons as he tries to raise a family.
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Cast
- Denzel WashingtonTroy Maxson
- Viola DavisRose Maxson
- Stephen McKinley HendersonJim Bono
- Jovan AdepoCory Maxson
- Russell HornsbyLyons Maxson
- Mykelti WilliamsonGabriel Maxson
- Saniyya SidneyRaynell Maxson
- Lesley BooneEvangelist Preacher
- Christopher MeleDeputy Commissioner
- Jason SilvisGarbage Truck Driver
Recommendations
- 100
Village Voice
This screen adaptation...is vital because it has the potential to reach marginalized communities. But it also stands as an aching, lyrical, performance-driven masterpiece in its own right, a film so intense and engrossing that movie houses really should screen it with an intermission. - 80
The Guardian
This film is conceived as a showcase for its performers, and, as that, it is immaculate. - 80
Screen Daily
Fences is a deeply affecting treatise on marriage, poverty and the struggles of sons to confront the long shadow of the man who brought them into this world. - 80
New York Daily News
Washington isn't a visionary director, something he's proved before in "The Great Debaters" and "Antwone Fisher." But he is a fine actor, and if nothing else Fences preserves his career-best performance, as a loving, bullying, wounded, roaring bull of a man. - 75
IndieWire
Washington, Henderson, Davis, and Hornsby are each “holy shit” great in their own ways, the four of them deepening the dynamics they forged together during their time on stage. - 70
TheWrap
Can you tell it’s a play? Absolutely. Does that mean a damn thing? Not when the writing is this richly evocative, and the cast so often soars with it. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Denzel Washington and Viola Davis know their parts here backward and forward, and they, along with the rest of the fine cast, bat a thousand, hitting both the humorous and serious notes. But with this comes a sense that all the conflicts, jokes and meanings are being smacked right on the nose in vivid close-ups, with nothing left to suggestion, implication and interpretation. - 63
New York Post
Honorable, worthy and windy, Fences is essentially a PBS episode of “Great Performances” that is inflated for the big screen without ever quite belonging there.
