Fences is a film that is literally about a fence, which was actually unexpected. We follow Troy Maxson through his life as a 1950’s sanitation worker in Pittsburgh whose mid-life crisis was to be a baseball player. Too old for the major leagues, he tries to be a good husband and father, but struggles when his missed opportunities begin to eat at him. It is then, he makes a series of decisions that threatens to tear his family apart. Directed by Denzel Washington, Fences is an adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Washington also stars in the film as the lead character Troy Maxson.
I entered the cinema, unaware of what I was in for. I just simply hadn’t had a minute to watch the trailer or read anything about it and 40-minutes deep into the film, it was time to go. I was not in the mood for a play where the first dialogue felt like it was an hour long alone. It was clearly a master piece that I wasn’t ready to dive into. I’m not on the fence with this one, I really honestly struggled to enjoy it.
