Director: Denzel Washington
Year Released: 2016
Rating: 3.0
Hard-working - but stubborn and supremely opinionated - Troy (Washington) drinks too much (only on Fridays, ha), argues with his son Cory (Jovan Adepo) about playing football (he's against it ... for selfish reasons) ... and eventually has to admit to his loving wife Rose (Viola Davis) that he fathered a baby with another woman. It's very difficult adapting plays to the screen and maintaining the same energy as the stage version, but Denzel does a fine job with this one - it doesn't hurt he's working with a wonderfully nuanced story from one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century (the late August Wilson) and that he already appeared in the revival back in 2010 (along with Davis) to critical acclaim (in other words: it would have been a true challenge to screw this up). Washington's performance as the complicated (and deeply flawed) Troy is certainly notable: he's a man at odds with seemingly everyone and everything, aching with regret and anger (especially when it comes to his failed baseball career) and unorthodox in his way of showing love.
