Review: Fences (12A)

Washington previously won a Tony award for his role in the 2010 Broadway production and, as the director of this film version, he’s opened it out beyond its 1950s Pittsburgh backyard setting only in as much as there are some establishing shots showing his character, Troy Maxson, at work.

But within minutes of the film starting, Washington and co-lead Viola Davis (who also starred opposite him in the Broadway revival) deliver Wilson’s loquacious dialogue with such dazzling force that their combined screen presence renders any thoughts about the cinematic limitations of his approach obsolete.

In fact, the contained setting actually works to the film’s advantage, clearing the way for Washington to provide a front row seat to a masterclass in screen acting.

Both make their characters’ long, declamatory marital conversations feel off-the-cuff and thematically relevant, as if these words are exploding out of them after too many years of forcibly biting their tongues to negotiate the strictures of life together in an overtly racist society.