Denzel Washington directs and stars in a beautiful adaptation of August Wilson’s play “Fences,” which was nominated for Best Picture at this year’s Oscars. Released in December, the film has received remarkable praise, earning four nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The film has grossed a domestic total of $53 million, surpassing its production budget of $24 million.

Washington plays Troy Maxson, an African-American garbageman who was once a professional baseball player. He is jaded and big-headed but has an equally big heart that occasionally peeks through. Viola Davis plays his affectionate wife, Rose, to whom Troy expresses grand gestures of affection. They live in 1950s Pittsburgh with their youngest son Cory, played by Jovan Adepo, whose aspirations of college and a football scholarship infuriate his father.

Troy is hard to love but not hard to respect. He works hard and provides for his family but is crippled with resentment and cynicism. He suppresses his anger but wears it in every withered crack on his face and attributes his failure to play major league baseball to his race. Washington, who has typically played action movie stars, delivers one of the most complex performances of his career, displaying incredible power and range as an actor.

The most notable aspect of the film is the acting. The characters are expertly flawed and shown through the eyes of a strong cast. Davis has a heart-wrenching monologue that shows audiences that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. It is in that moment that her entire world crumbles as she realizes her husband’s selfishness. Her performance, much like Washington’s, resonates with power and strength.

The script is intelligently written and incredibly dense, a daunting task for the actors, who, nevertheless, delivered their lines with incredible integrity. Watching the film feels like watching a play, but the cinematographic style creates a nice flow.

“Fences” encompasses its audiences in its world. You become invested in the characters; you feel their sorrow and their pain; you laugh at their jokes and you understand their challenges. “Fences” is like life: fierce, fiery, and poetic.