Fences -- Movie Review

And you ain't gonna find him givin' nobody nothin' neither.

And that dear friends is exactly what's wrong with this movie.

Credit where credit is due. Denzel Washington does an excellent job of directing and acting. Viola Davis is a superb actress. The whole cast does very well. They are not the problem.

The story is the problem. We start out with the main character Troy Maxson (Washington) and his buddy Bono (played by Stephen McKinley Henderson.) They're were in prison together. The film starts years later with them coming home after their usual week working together on a garbage truck. We meet Rose Maxson (Davis.) And the relationships among these three seem healthy.

But then Troy's son by a woman before he married Rose, Lyons (played by Russell Hornsby) comes on the scene. And then we meet Cory (played by Jovan Adepo) Troy and Rose's son. That's when the story begins to fall apart for me.

Spoiler alert! Troy is an abusive spouse and parent. The film then skillfully tells us why Troy is abusive. Here was an opportunity for a story of redemption. But that ain't what we get.

Okay. I understand about abusive men. Why they're that way may be legitimate. But, quite frankly, somewhere along the way they gotta learn and change. They gotta make amends. Become human beings. What happened to them before may not have been their fault. Or maybe they hadn't learned any better. But somewhere along the way, they've gotta take responsibility for who they are now.

And the woman's character made me as mad as he did. I have no patience for a woman who does not protect her children especially from their father. She sees first hand what he does.

I know most of them don't change. But some do. Troy's friend Bono apparently did. But not Troy.

The simple fact is keeping a man is just like keeping a horse or a dog. There are too many good ones out there who need a home and someone who will love them, to waste yourself keeping a bad one.

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