|
All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
Antwone Fisher
|
 out of 4
|
 |
Starring: Denzel Washington, Derek Luke
Director: Denzel Washington
Rated: PG-13
RunTime: 120 Minutes
Release Date: January 2003
Genre: Drama |
| *Also starring: | De'Angelo Wilson, Yolonda Ross, Stephen Snedden, Viola Davis |
|
Review by Susan Granger
2½ stars out of 4
|
Oscar-winner Denzel Washington makes his directorial debut with this
tepid but true story of Antwone Fisher (Derek Luke), a Navy seaman with deep
psychological problems and a propensity for fighting. In addition, Washington
plays the empathetic Navy psychiatrist, Dr. Jerome Davenport who - through
healing Fisher - helps himself. Through flashbacks, we discover that Antwone
Fisher had a very chaotic and dysfunctional childhood. His father was killed and
his mother, a convict, abandoned him. He then suffered physical and emotional
abuse from a cruel, sadistic foster mother (Novella Nelson), along with sexual
molestation from an older foster sister. Once the alienated Fisher finally opens
up to his savvy doctor and cooperates, however, all his problems seem to vanish
with a few therapy sessions. Plus, he meets a remarkably understanding co-worker
(Joy Bryant), the daughter of a Navy man. I suspect this film's primary problem
is that Antwone Fisher adapted his own autobiography, "Finding Fish"; a more
adept screenwriter would not have idealized the three primary roles and made
redemption so easy. The pivotal peripheral characters, like Fisher's long-lost
aunt (Vernee Watson Johnson) and real mother (Viola Davis), are nondescript, too
quickly introduced and dismissed. Above all, Davenport's relationship with his
troubled wife (Salli Richardson), which is supposed to act as an emotional
parallel, is too manipulative and shallow to work at all. Not only is this
Denzel Washington's first directing job, but it's also Derek Luke's first
big-screen job and model Joy Bryant's first major acting role - which, I
suppose, is why it's not a conventional TV movie-of-the-week. On the Granger
Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Antwone Fisher" is a bland, feel-good 6. It's inspiring
but insipid.
Copyright © 2002 Susan Granger
| |
|
|
Buy movie posters!
|
