Antwone Fisher (2002)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Denzel Washington

Writer (WGA):

Antwone Fisher (written by)

Release Date:

10 January 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Inspired by a true story.

Plot:

Antwone Fisher, a young navy man, is forced to see a psychiatrist after a violent outburst against a fellow crewman. During the course of treatment a painful past is revealed and a new hope begins.

Plot Keywords:

Psychiatrist | Navy | Sailor | Beating | Anger

Awards:

14 wins & 17 nominations

Cast

Derek Luke	...	Antwone Quenton 'Fish' Fisher
Malcolm David Kelley	...	Antwone Fisher Age 7
Cory Hodges	...	Antwone Fisher Age 14
Denzel Washington	...	Dr. Jerome Davenport
Joy Bryant	...	Cheryl Smolley
Salli Richardson-Whitfield	...	Berta Davenport (as Salli Richardson)
Leonard Earl Howze	...	Pork Chop
Kente Scott	...	Kansas City (as Kenté Scott)
Kevin Connolly	...	Slim
Rainoldo Gooding	...	Grayson
Novella Nelson	...	Mrs. Tate
Stephen Snedden	...	Berkley
Leo Nepomuceno	...	SP #1
Sung Kang	...	Receptionist
Cordell Stokes	...	Keith Age 5

Also Known As:

Finding Fish (USA) (working title)
Fish (USA) (original script title)
The Antwone Fisher Story (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence, language and mature thematic material involving child abuse.

Runtime:

120 min | Canada:117 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Brazil:12 | Malaysia:U | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:14A | Denmark:11 | Finland:K-11 | Germany:6 (w) | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M | Singapore:PG | Spain:7 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #39019) | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Cabrillo National Monument, Point Loma, San Diego, California, USA

Company:

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Trivia:

Antwone Fisher was working as a security guard at Sony Studios. Studio executives began hearing about his life story and offered to buy the rights. But Fisher refused insisting that he write the screenplay himself. Fisher wrote 41 drafts until he sold it to Fox.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the bedroom, after Thanksgiving dinner, Berta Davenport takes off her necklace twice.

Quotes:

Antwone Fisher: It don't matter what you tried to do, you couldn't destroy me! I'm still standing! I'm still strong! And I always will be.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Chappelle's Show: (#1.6)" (2003)

Soundtrack:

Marine Corps Jody

Showing African-American Families for Ill and Good

I went to see "Antwone Fisher" as an accident of multi-plex sold-out theaters and was girded for schmaltz, but was curious to see Denzel Washington's directorial debut.

Whoa, the whole audience--including me-- burst out into tears at the same time, with many also bursting out into applause at a later moment. But could anyone have ruined such strong material as this autobiographical story by the screenwriter?

Washington's prim, prudish fingers are all over the structure-- I read that it was his decisions to tone down the abuse Fisher actually suffered, and to add in more of his character's, the shrink, role with his (yet another light-skinned, straight-haired) wife because he thought the audience needed a break from Fisher, and I disagree with both choices.

Where Washington is especially effective - and the scenes that prompted the tears and the applause-- is in showing African-American families so naturally, with a diversity of personalities, reactions, motivations, and interactions, comparable to Barry Levinson's Jewish family sagas. He's more pedestrian in the macho military environment, unlike, say, how comfortably in-your-face Curtis Hanson's "8 Mile" is with guys together.

This is very much like a black "Three Faces of Eve" showing the solution to psychological problems as remembering, talking about, and reconciling with the past.

The scenes with Fisher and his too-nice girlfriend are charming. But we don't really get an answer to the question, as to how it is that Fisher, who even at the beginning of the movie is not hardened but is basically a sweet guy who just happens to throw punches a lot, ended up all right when everyone else in his milieu ended up in jail or worse.