Saw the movie today. Very moving, wonderful cinematography, a story that had to be told.
A review I read before seeing the movie complained about the acting abilities of the three girls: they showed little emotion, few facial expressions, etc. I found them to display characteristics that I expect of such children and that are sometimes found in Native American children on the reservation (I am drawing a comparison to the Canadian Chellahis Band that my Dad grew up with and lived among. My grandpa was a teacher on the res). The Fences actors certainly weren’t the usual Hollywood variety children (Drew Barrymore, Macauley Culkin types) and it would have been inappropriate for them to be so.
The Kenneth Branagh character seemed a little too predictable, too cliched, but then again that might have been the prevailing consciousness of that era.
There were some stunning visuals: the children walking through the desert, their figures obliterated by the heat waves surrouding them, their limbs distorted into nearly stick-like images; the amazing terrain of Australia; a depiction of home life when the children were given food and jackets by a farmwife; the children being transported in a cage en route to their ‘school.’
The girls’ mother and grandmother were astonishing in their honesty, as were most of the other characters (with the exception of Branagh, although I’m unsure if the part was overwritten).
This is a Must See and will leave you a little exhausted and lost in thought for quite awhile afterwards.