Customer Reviews

Good Fences

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First let me state that despite the back of case description this movie is not a comedy. It does have its funny moments but comedy it is not. Set mainly in the 70's, this is the story of the Spaders, a black family that's movin on up. The father, aptly named Tom, is a promising lawyer who is driven to prove that he and his family are every bit as good, if not better than white people. As they get richer, and move into, and up in the affluent white world, they gradually become that which they hated, vapid, spoiled, stuck up bigots. The only family member who seems mainly unaffected is the son, Tommy 2. The film is sad, moving and disturbing. The direction is superb and the actors give powerful performances, with Whoopie Goldberg really standing out with her portrayal of a housewife increasingly trapped, isolated and alienated in a world in which she both belongs and dosn't belong.

First of all I would like to say that this movie is not funny or meant to be funny as one customer stated in their review. I don't want viewers to get confused and miss out on a serious drama portrayed quite well by Glover and Goldberg. I have seen this movie a few times, and I myself never even thought about the roles they played in The Color Purple, which incidently was also a serious drama. For anyone to think otherwise, they simply have a closed mind, and really missed the point. This is a "must see". A story that is very common, because so many people "Forget where they came from."

I thought this movie was a comedy when I got it,but it is a far cry from that. Although there are some lighthearted moments in it, this is a heartfelt film.
Whoopie Goldberg and Danny Glover play a black family. Glover had a disturbing past with bigot whites in his youth. His determindation to make something of himself pays off and soon he and his family are living on easy street. However, things are not as they should be. This movie shows, I believe, that we must all be true to ourselves, rich or poor, black or white, we are happiest when we do not try to be what others what us to be.
No one can be happy when they surpress their true desires and try to live the way they feel others think they should.If we respect one another, try to live peaceable our world would be a much happier place to live in. I feel this was the basic of the movie and they did a very job in showing that.

This is a masterpiece of a movie! An absolute masterpiece! It's a provacative satire about race and class--about the clash between social mobility and social constructs--that masterfully unfolds scene by scene and draws you in with each passing minute. Whoopi and Danny are pitch-perfect in their performances, and this script showed the versatility of their acting chops! Truly, these are the kind of performances that I have only come to expect on the small stage and in independent theater. Unlike the many movies roles offered to black actors, both Mable (Whoopi) and Tom (Danny) are complex, multi-faceted, and three-dimensional characters. They are each a perfect balance of strength and weakness, of immunity and vulnerability. Over the course of the movie, you will inevitably love and hate them and what they stand for at the same time. Because they are human. Fragily so. Understandably so.

Good Fences is fresh. It's edgy. It's raw. It's real. Best of all, this movie never once panders to tired stereotypes and over-worked themes to tell a story about an upwardly mobile black family in 1970s Connecticut. It's indie-quality (and was actually screened at SunDance) with a mainstream budget and cinematography. It's a (well, partially at least) Spike Lee joint that actually makes sense the whole way through. It's an intelligent film that clearly should have received a lot more critical acclaim and attention than it got. It's the next movie you just have to see!

Whoopi Goldberg gives one of her strongest performances in this biting satirical film about a black man (Danny Glover) sppropriately named Tom, who rises to the top in the legal world, then sheds his black, southern roots in order to fit into white society. Whoopi Goldberg is the wife who bears with her husband's self-loathing until it reaches a dangerous level.

Glover and Goldberg are Tom and Mabel Spader, who fall in love as teens, marry, work hard and eventually achieve financial success and social status. Their move to the suburbs proves (at least to them) that they've "made it," and while Tom wants to distance himself from "ghetto" stigmatism, Goldberg strikes a delicate balance between a wealthy housewife trying to fit in with her new white friends and a sister maintaining a connection to her old ones, no matter how much Tom is ashamed of them.

Tom's world is upset when a second black homeowner, Ruth Crisp--a lottery winner--comes to the neighborhood. Ruth (wonderfully acted by Mo'Nique) in the eyes of Tom and his white neighbors, lacks sophistication. Without giving away anything, this prods Tom to totally lose his black identity and take on one more indicative of a klansman.

Steady direction by Ernest Dickerson, and it is no surprise that Spike Lee (Executive Producer), is associated with this in-your-face satire. After all, who does it better?

I think is a good movie about racism with in the black community again one another

Yes, I'm afraid I can't agree with any of the reviews above, except that they are all right in saying that this movie certainly is not at all funny. (The only funny thing, in fact, is Whoopi Goldberg's absurd glasses.) This movie is a real snore. It doesn't start anywhere, and it doesn't go anywhere. It's too long and it pieces together all kinds of different scenes without any kind of rationale. The idea of the cost of upward mobility is interesting, but the execution is flawed, and I can understand why more people haven't heard of this movie.

I agree this was not a comedy. The story of the black man that makes it far enough to where he is suspicious of other blacks living on his block was interesting. He actually set a house on fire so a black neighbor wouldn't buy it. I really enjoyed the curious white women also. The grocery store scenes were also quite interesting.
Towards the end when Glovers daughter had the blond hair and the contacts, I was saying damn, look how far things have gone. Wonder what daddy would have thought. As for the end, I wonder, did Mable ever tell Ruth what happened with the house. I liked the movie but have seen better ones with a similar plot.

When whoopie goldberg and danny glover play in another movie together after the Color Purple. When I saw this movie on Showtime, and I saw those two in the same scene, I fell out laughing cause all I kept thinkin' about was the Color Purple... "You cut me, and I'll kill ya!!"... "You told Harpo to beat me"... LOL. But once I got over it and I actually sat down and watched the movie, I knew it was one of those movies I had to have in my DVD collection. This movie is not only funny, but it's very powerful. And I want everyone to go out and buy this movie or watch it on Showtime. You won't be dissapointed.

Desperate Housewives meets The Jeffersons meets Crash

This is a movie you'd only watch in order to provoke a discussion about race and society and ambition, and since it's set in the past, even that discussion is of limited value. It isn't a well-told story, the plot jumps from vignette to vignette without a clear connection. Gradually you 'get' what's going on but the story is never fleshed out. It's more a series of snapshots that you're left to fill in the blank spaces between.

As others noted, the description on the back of the DVD case is totally off the mark - this movie is not at all funny or a comedy unless you like making fun of people with narrow stereotypical caricatures. I did not laugh once. Good Fences (a complete misnomer of a title, there are no fences in the movie, but I'm nit-picking) does have some very strong points as you observe what the two main characters are willing to do to themselves in the pursuit of a so-called better life; this element would be the basis for a very meaningful discussion and the reason why I gave the movie two stars instead of one.

The movie is rated R and definitely deserves it. There is frontal nudity and the seduction of a teenage boy, both completely unnecessary to the plotline. Hanging is portrayed, spousal abuse is intimated, bigotry runs rampant, drug abuse and other criminal behaviors are mixed into the suburban cauldron in a lame attempt to keep the plot interesting. Mostly I just ended up feeling sorry for the actors at being stuck in such a bad production. If the movie were recut it could be very powerful. As it is, you can assume that they slapped the "non-stop hilarity" label on the back of the DVD in a desperate attempt to get people to watch it. Go see Crash and watch The Jeffersons instead.