Fences displays some of the finest acting I've ever seen in a film. Denzel is greatly supported by the rest of the cast loved all of the actors. I want denzel to direct more films. He should have won his 3rd oscar but lost to a pervert aka cassey affleck

The real Denzel Washington is here, a movie for the history. Really great performance of Denzel and Viola, great start, real drama, fair ending. I like this man.

Viola Davis and Denzel Washington were both excellent as expected.The problem with this movie is the fact that it is lost in a dilemma:Giving a universal message and inspire people or to make people cry over the characters' personal dramas.

Troy is a middle-aged garbage collector in 1950s Pittsburgh. Though he gets some enjoyment from life, he is rather bitter about his past, and brings that along into his relationship with his teenage son Cory, with wife Rose doing her best to mediate between them. Life isn't wonderful, but it could get worse... The story in this film is set up in the trailer, but there is a development at the two-thirds point which comes as a surprise, and which drives developments up to the end of the film.Having said that, the plot is secondary: this film is primarily a character study. As the film progresses, we learn how Troy became the man he is: cognisant of his responsibilities as a family man, loving, bullying, kind, controlling, narrow-minded and long-sighted - in short, full of the contradictions which make every one of us a human being.Denzel Washington, directing and starring in the film version of the play which he and co-star Viola Davis played successfully on Broadway, controls this film both behind and in front of the camera. It is a brilliant performance. By the time this film is finished, you love this man and despise him at the same time, attitudes which are shared by his son Cory.But every member of the cast is exemplary. Viola Davis deserved her Oscar nomination, but I greatly like Mykelti Williamson, playing a part which is some distance from his usual range.My sole reservation is that the film is somewhat depressing: despite his positive notes, Troy isn't a very likeable man, and he carries a great deal of not very likeable baggage with him. But that is not the point of this story, it IS this story. And it's a story which is worth seeing for the performances alone.