Antwone Fisher (2002)

Antwone Fisher (2002)

 6/10

 Starring

Derek Luke

Denzel Washington

 

Directed by Denzel Washington

 

The movie is a fun drama to see and it does it best to convey the struggles of a young black man. You will be impressed to know that this movie was Denzel Washington’s first directorial work, and he did a good job.

Other than that, I felt the movie did not do the best in showing us the struggles as most of the challenges Fisher faced seemed were his tales and it is left for the viewer to use their imaginations. The movie is biographical drama inspired by the true story of Antwone Fisher and is based of his autobiographical book Finding Fish.

The story of Antwone Fisher is one of those sad tales of what goes on when a child grows up in the foster system in the U.S. Fisher (Derek Luke) who did not know his father and his mother gave birth to him while she was in jail. Fisher went through a lot of abuse as a child, but physical and sexual which led to some difficulty in his life as he grew up. Fisher joined the navy, but his constant violent outburst was about to get him thrown off. He was sent to a psychiatrist Jerome Davenport (Washington), who tried to connect with Fisher, but had some challenges as Fisher was not ready to open up about his past. Fisher’s life had a lady involved in it, and after another fight – he started to open up. Trying to get his life back on track so he can move forward with his future and be with the woman he loves.

This moving forward involved him having to deal with the things that happened to him in the past and finding his birth parents so he can resolve the ongoing issues within him.

The movie was not much of a financial success, but it was a critical one with Washington getting a lot of praises for his directorial work in the movie. Luke also got a lot of praises for his acting in this movie. This movie was Luke’s first full length movie production to star in, as Luke before this had been acting in TV shows. The real Fisher has taken a lot of work in the entertainment industry writing, directing and producing films, all of which I have not seen.

The movie is worth seeing for anyone who has not seen it, the drama is well paced and the movie itself delivers all the needed goods for a nice time in front of the TV.