Antwone Fisher (2002)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Antwone Fisher, based on his book Finding Fish
Original Songs & Music by Mychael Danna
Directed by Denzel Washington
Starring Derek Luke, Malcolm David Kelley, Cory Hodges, Denzel Washington, Joy Bryant

Features:

• Running audio commentary by director Washington and producer Todd Black
  
• Meeting Antwone Fisher Featurette
  
• Behind-the-scenes featurette
  
• Hollywood and the Navy Featurette
  

Released by: Fox Home Entertainment
Rating: PG-13
Region: 1
Anamorphic: Yes

My Advice: Definitely rent it; fans of Washington will want to purchase

Antwone Fisher (played by Luke, Kelley, and Hodges at various ages in his life) has had a very rough life. He was born to a mother who was still serving time in prison. He instantly became a ward of the state and was thrown into various orphanages and homes as he grew up. However, the place that he would be forced to call "home" was anything but. He was abused by a bible-beating old woman named Mrs. Tate (Novella Nelson). She would beat him and the other two orphan boys who lived with her for absolutely no reason whatsoever. After he was old enough to leave the house, he immediately joined the Navy, but even there he had problems. It seems he would get into fights with almost anyone who got in his way. He was sentenced to see a councellor named Dr. Davenport (Washington) who, by simply loving him, helped him to control his anger.

Make no mistake, this is a feel-good drama. However, it works. The reason why I think it works is that the studios got out of the way (for the most part) and allowed this young man's voice be heard through his writing. He is an incredibly gifted scribe and Washington understood that in his direction of the script. All of the performances are spot on, and even though the movie does get bogged down in some places, it pulls itself out with relative ease and keeps moving. Luke turns in a very believable and real performance as Fisher, and Washington knows his role in this movie, too: it would have been all too easy for Washington to have taken the lead in this story, but he didn't. This speaks not only to Washington's talent as an actor, but also his incredible instincts as a director. Make no mistake, this story is sentimental in places, but it justifies itself over and over again.

The DVD is a good treatment of the movie, focusing on not only the story being told, but the man who lived and wrote the story. One of the first featurettes on the DVD looks at how Fisher went from writing all this down to it becoming a major motion picture distributed by Fox. Unfortunately, Washington and Black spend quite a bit of time on their audio commentary track talking about much of this same information. Once they get beyond this, their discussion of the film becomes a little more interesting. The making-of featurette is decent. It comes close to the border of those featurettes that simply serve to self-gratify. For example, the do spend a lot of time talking about how the actors chosen were absolutely perfect for the part. To which, I ask the question, isn't it safe to assume that's why you cast them? How about giving me a little example of something they did in the audition that made you "know" they were the one? Then include some audition footage to go along with it? But, the truth of it is, that most of the time, directors and producers don't "know" and make the best choice that they can given their pool of talent.

Anyway, the other featurette is called "Hollywood and the Navy", which is almost ironic given today's political climate. Anyway, in this one, "Hollywood" thanks the Department of Defense and the Department of the Navy for being so cooperative in a post-9/11 environment, and the Department of the Navy talks about how good it is for the morale of the men to have the film crews coming aboard their ships and shooting their movies which, in some cases, those men get to be involved in. It's pretty short and fluffy, but it's about as close as we are going to get to full-out hugs and kisses between Hollywood and the military these days.

So, if you are a fan of the movie, you will probably want to pick this one up as a purchase. However, if you've never seen it before, I would say that you should rent it before you buy it.