As a thorough oral history of the film's making, it's a must-listen for fans of the film and particularly Washington enthusiasts. The two have a friendly rapport as they recall how the film came to be and Washington's process in collaboration with Fisher and as a first-time actor-director. The special edition kicks off with an audio commentary by director Denzel Washington and producer Todd Black. Sound provides solid surround effects in a lossless DTS track that's downright definitive. In its Blu-ray debut, Antwone Fisher looks mighty handsome there's a touch of edge enhancement and intermittent horizontal jitter, but colors and detail are crisp and a vast improvement over DVD. For me, Antwone Fisher rings false, belittling instead of honoring its sensitive subject with its twinkly score, kid-glove nobility and cloying payoffs.ĭistributor: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment The clumsy-tidy ending-when the healing is done-will likely evoke chuckles from many, though some may respond to the formula. What follows, however, is as visually bland as the storytelling is flat. He opens with an Oscar-baiting dream sequence-laboriously mirrored later in the film-that demonstrates a visual acuity (credit Oscar-winning cinematographer Philippe Rousselot). Largely to blame is Washington's condescending tone as director. Fisher and Washington don't seem to get that they need to work against the clichés to make the story seem real, and not "reel." When Fisher stands in Davenport's living room on Thanksgiving and recites, "Who will cry for the little boy?", can audiences be blamed for cringing? (Applied as voice-over narration, the poem might have flown.) There's a TV-movie narrowness to the storytelling, including the counterpoint of Davenport's marriage-at-a-crossroads, his secret shame comparing to Antwone's.
Meanwhile, he's trying to make headway with "normal" life, represented by the love of a good woman (Joy Bryant's Cheryl). Jerome Davenport-the story eschews any real emotional complexity for the comfortingly simple lines of a Hollywood screenplay (the real Fisher left behind his job as a Sony Pictures security guard after insiders coached him in reshaping his script).Īs in Good Will Hunting, the patient resentfully dismisses psychotherapy, though he turns around to crave the attention of someone who cares to help him (Fisher ends up hurt that he can't get more than his limit of three sessions). Tracing the character of Antwone backwards from inexplicably hotheaded navy man to confused inner child -through psychotherapy with Washington's good-hearted, surrogate-fatherly Dr. But then why does Antwone Fisher fail to do the same?įisher's self-mythologizing script deserves much of the blame (it's based on Fisher's 2001 autobiography Finding Fish). The essence of Antwone Fisher-his triumph over childhood abuse and its self-destructive consequences-cannot help but inspire. etc.The film Antwone Fisher, in real life, represents opportunity for its titular subject-who turned his life into the screenplay of a major motion picture-for Derek Luke, who makes his screen debut as Fisher-and for Denzel Washington, who not only appears in a major role, but directs for the first time. I can't help but think that we have all heard this story too many times before."It wasn't my fault because. The father's family was receptive to him, and wanted to welcome him as a family member and begin a relationship. It seemed to me that she could have cared less that he was her son, but he is able to find some closure. Finally finding his father's family, he is able to locate his mother. Davenport eventually releases Antwone from treatment, suggesting that he try to locate his mother. Now he tells his doctor that as a child he was abused.ĭr. While on leave in Mexico, Antwone gets into another fight and is thrown into jail. Antwone meets a female sailor, Cheryl, and begins a relationship. Treatment goes slowly, and some eventual progress is made. The doctor is Jerome Davenport (Denzel Washington). He is sentenced, demoted, and ordered to begin psychiatric treatment for his violent nature. He joins the Navy where he gets into trouble for injuring another sailor in a fight.
All of this is supposed to be the reason for his violent temper. At that time he left and lived a life of crime on the streets, for the next few years. He was placed in a foster home at two, where grew up in what is described (by him) as an abusive home where he lived until age fourteen.
She never bothered to claim him when she got out. His teenage mother was in prison, and his father was dead. Pretty good film about a young black man Antwone Fisher (Derek Luke), who wound up in an orphanage as a baby after being born in prison.
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