Clip It: Each day, Jon Davis looks at the world of trailers, featurettes, and clips and puts it all in perspective.
Who doesn't like Denzel Washington? In Fences, Denzel is giving all the fans exactly what they want. He's playing a passionate, mediocre dad in a period piece. It's like the platonic ideal of a Denzel Washington role.
Viola Davis plays his wife. She appears to be acting her heart out here, too. My one hesitation is how much of this is too actor-oriented? Denzel is directing this movie, and he's clearly put an emphasis on performance. Sometimes that can make for a rather loud movie experience, with actors raging against the dying of the light. Let's hope the story doesn't get lost in the process.
I used to watch American Idol. Some singers were amazing, and they'd do all these interesting vocal tics and trills, but they'd lost track of the meaning of the words they were singing, robbing the performance of soul. Actors can do the same thing with line readings. Latter-day Al Pacino, for instance, who throws it out there, screaming, overturning tables, etc., but doesn't always connect to the specific emotion he's meant to be relaying.
Let's hope Fences continues Denzel Washington's tradition of controlled, amazing performances