In a season that's already beginning to burst with cinematic baubles and trinkets, "Antwone Fisher" promises to be one of the most enjoyable and durable gifts under the tree.
The directorial debut of Denzel Washington and the screen debut of Derek Luke, its young, self-assured star, "Antwone Fisher" is a piece of controlled, adroit filmmaking, as notable for what it doesn't do as for what it does so well. Working with a script written by the actual Antwone Fisher, Washington ensures that what could have been a mawkish melodrama is instead a riveting story well told. A tale of a young man's survival despite unspeakable cruelty, "Antwone Fisher" is blessedly free of the self-righteous histrionics and sentimentality that so often cheapen powerful personal stories. It's a class act all the way, from its inviting opening scene of a small boy's dream of Heaven to its quietly triumphant conclusion.
Newcomers Luke, left, and Joy Bryant, and first-time director Denzel Washington soar.
(Sidney Baldwin -- AP)
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Who is Antwone Fisher? Born in prison a few months after his father had been shot to death, Fisher was reared in Cleveland by an apathetic foster father and a sadistic foster mother who regularly beat him and his foster brothers and called them by a common racial epithet. Eventually turned over to a reform school, Fisher was homeless by the time he was 17. But he had the sense and self-worth to enlist in the Navy, and he went on to become a security guard at Sony Pictures in Hollywood. After enrolling in a screenwriting class offered by the outreach program of an L.A. church, Fisher came to the attention of two producers who saw a terrific movie in his life of overcoming mind-boggling odds. When they asked Washington to star in the movie as Fisher's Navy psychiatrist, he told them he'd not only appear in the movie, he'd like to direct it. When Washington set about casting the title role, he chose a struggling young actor who was working in the Sony gift shop.
Happily, the resulting movie isn't nearly as improbable as the true story of how it got made. In a clear, straightforward manner, Washington lays out Fisher's story, beginning when he is a 25-year-old seaman in the Navy. A gentle, soft-spoken young man, Fisher is prone to furious, violent outbursts when he feels he's been disrespected. On the brink of a dishonorable discharge, he is ordered to see psychiatrist Jerome Davenport (Washington), who will then recommend that Fisher either stay in the Navy or be kicked out.
Those one-on-one sessions form the ballast of "Antwone Fisher," but don't expect any talky "Good Will Hunting" repartee or "I think I'm reaching him!" monologues. Fisher refuses to talk for the first few sessions, and his silence speaks volumes on its own. Eventually he opens up and he proceeds to detail to Davenport the horrors he endured as a little boy – not just neglect but physical violence and sexual abuse at the hands of a babysitter. The memories are relayed in flashbacks, but the most compelling thing about "Antwone Fisher" is Luke's portrayal of a person who, aside from the occasional fistfight, has successfully endured years of mistreatment by cultivating dignity, depth and inviolable self-possession.
These qualities are at the fore when Fisher courts a comely young Navy enlistee named Cheryl (Joy Bryant, another promising newcomer). Their love story is a sweet counterpoint to the roiling personal history he's grappling with. In another subplot, Jerome seems to be fighting some demons of his own – witness the oddly chilly relationship with his beautiful wife (Salli Richardson). Washington weaves these strands together with a deft touch, and he never misses an opportunity to leaven the proceedings with some easygoing humor, such as Fisher's visit to the Davenport home for a Thanksgiving that puts the lie to the idealized Norman Rockwell visions he'd had of family celebrations.
The last half of "Antwone Fisher" concerns his search for his biological family – a journey that has necessarily been compressed and semi-fictionalized to fit into a feature film. But this, too, veers away from the stock mythological search for Mother, and its climactic confrontation is one of admirable understatement, especially from Luke, whose performance here is extraordinarily subtle and direct – one presumes, much like Fisher himself. When Antwone says, "I am a good person. I am a good man," he could easily be speaking not just to the individual who abandoned him but to an entire society that's all too willing to throw its young black men away.
ANTWONE FISHER (PG-13, 117 minutes) – Contains violence and language. At area theaters.
