With Awards Season heating up, its no shock that Fences has become one of the season’s strongest contenders. Based on a August Wilson play and staring none other than Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, the pedigree present here is obviously quite impressive.

Fences follows Troy Maxson, an African-American father whose been bruised by failed dreams and the racial division of the country. Set in the 1950’s, the film follows Troy and his wife Rose, who are trying to raise a family and come to terms with their life together. Despite all the acclaim surrounding the film, I was quite disappointed by Fences, which fails to make a great transition from stage to film.

Bolstering this material is the performances, which are impressive from start to finish. Viola Davis as always delivers a powerful Oscar-wrothy performance, with a great balance of subtlety and raw emotion. Denzel Washington isn’t quite to Davis’ level here, but is dynamic in the heavy main role as Troy. Supporting players Stephen Henderson, Russell Hornsby, and Jovan Adepo round out the cast respectably.

There is a lot about the film to admire. Wilson’s play is an important slice of history, giving an intimate look at a family growing up during the segregation era. There are a few strong moments tackling the complexities of parenthood, marriage life, and death. It’s a shame the film mainly misses at brining these issues to life.

Fences is directed by Denzel Washington, who previously directed the modest The Great Debaters. Washington as a director is great at working with actors and pulling out good performances, but his visual flare is anemic. There is very little about the film that is cinematic, with most of the visuals being a standard shot of a character’s face. Despite the film being set mostly in one location, we don’t get a sense of the claustrophobia the characters feel by being ever-present in their tiny house.

Oddly enough, the screenplay for the film is a direct adaptation of Wilson’s work, forgoing having a screenwriter come in to edit it to film. That level of dedication to the source material is admirable, but I think it was the wrong move. There are a lot of details here that make the film feel more like a play than a film, with Washington not taking advantage of the cinematic art form that film is. There is a key plot points that happen off-screen, which makes these moments far less effective than if they were shown.

Emotionally, this could have been a very effective movie. However, a lot of the emotional beats here fall flat. There are a lot of moments of characters shouting and crying with strong emotion, but these moments feel far too theatric to seem genuine. As films like Manchester by the Sea and Moonlight have shown, actors don’t have to play to the back row in order to solicit an emotional response.

Fences is an admirable adaptation of a great play, but Washington and company fail to successfully crossover what worked in the play to film.

Grade: C