Antwone Fisher

Adapting his well-received memoir into screenplay format, Antwone Fisher, an ex-Navy soldier whose traumatic childhood is the basis for this film, should have left the adaptation process to professional screenwriters. Mr. Fisher’s ability to translate his life into a dramatic and structured medium, one with which he doesn’t have much experience, is too amateurish to do his upbringing justice. No doubt the turned writer’s intentions were good, and surly his best-selling memoir is one captivating read, but actor Denzel Washington’s directorial debut, the self-titled Antwone Fisher, is so aggressive in its methods of forcing us to pity and sympathize with the title character, that at times this form of manipulation becomes intolerable.

The performances are fine and it’s well done technically, suggesting that Washington has a talent exceeding his consistently impressive acting abilities, but Fisher’s script is such a jumbled mess that the filmmakers should’ve had the common sense to hire someone with the proper knowledge to polish the damn thing. Watching Antwone Fisher, no matter how brutal his childhood experiences were depicted on film (and worse has happened to children in movies: Sleepers’ rape and beating scenes got pretty ugly), I never once understood how any Hollywood produced could think this subject would make a good, let alone tolerable, movie. Yes, Fisher’s real story may be inspirational. This film is anything but.

Newcomer Derek Luke stars as Fisher, the 24-year old hothead sent by his superiors to be psychologically evaluated after starting many brawls. His psychologist is Jerome Davenport (Denzel Washington), a shrink in the mold of Robin Williams’ Sean Maguire of Good Will Hunting: caring, sarcastic, lovable. After some required stubbornness (“I ain’t sayin’ nuthin”), the young man beings to open up and narrate his lousy childhood; filled with cruel foster parents and constant feelings of abandonment. And before you know it, Fisher and his doctor form and father-son like bond that allows Davenport to be the parental figure his patient never had. Throw in a cheesy love interest into the mix (played by model Joy Bryant), and you have an overly sentimental tearjerker gift-wrapped and ready to manipulate audiences this holiday season.

On the plus side, Washington’s directing capability isn’t nearly as disappointing as some of his peers’, such as George Clooney and Nicolas Cage. He can create a horror-like mood well enough, seen during the scenes where Antwone recalls his abusive stepmother. But when his film features the dozen or so unnecessary scenes, including one of Dr. Davenport eating a quietly uncomfortable dinner with his wife (Salli Richardson), Antwone Fisher slips deeper and deeper into irrelevancy. If the Jerome character and his wife were developed further, then perhaps this scene would sit somewhat easier, but the script completely ignores this sub-plot, which is probably more interesting than the film in its entirety.
-Shaun Sages

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