ANTWONE FISHER off a parent (see Lost in Yonkers, every second because they know that Shine), because the scenes are usually not only do the good guys lose, but the Directed by ; rigged--wish-fulfillment fantasies--and bad guys do, too. written by Antwone Fisher; director the parent is a straw man invented for of photography, Philippe Rousselot; the purpose of bringing the grown-up … Anything that depicts black people edited by Conrad Buff; music by child to self-actualization. This movie as human beings-not merely cardboard Mychael Danna; released by Fox has two such scenes, including the "still knuckleheads and hoochies-is on the Searchlight Pictures. Running time: standing, still strong" exchange. In the frontier. In that respect, this film 117 minutes. This film is rated PG- second one, in which Antwone shows surprises us with its renditions of the 13. his birth mother that he made it to an human heart. admirable adulthood without her help, WITH: (Antwone Fisher), the parent is played by the staggeringly Humanity is the issue in this film. It Joy Bryant (Cheryl), Denzel gifted stage actress Viola Davis. draws no lines. It also is willing to Washington (Jerome Davenport), Though she's only on screen for five question certain aspects of Afro- Salli Richardson (Berta), Earl Billings minutes, her raw, complex American street culture-all those things (James), Kevin Connolly (Slim), performance, which focuses the that express hatred, crude materialism, Yolanda Ross (Nadine) and Novella unresolvable ambivalence of this violence and self-denigration-while Nelson (Mrs. Tate). woman who never thought she'd see promoting the values of community, of the child she abandoned, makes embracing the hurt ones, of pushing everything else in the movie look like people to face their demons rather than Steve Vineberg, Christian Century dime-store fakery. continuing to pretend that they do not exist or that everything is someone …The ace up the picture's sleeve is Lisa Schwarzbaum else's fault. that it was written by the actual Antwone Fisher. So the movie has it From Derek Luke, who plays the title both ways: it's genuine stuff (the tale of …The autobiographical …values role, Washington has pulled a very a true-life lost child who found his way) narrative straightforwardness over complex performance, one at odds with and it's an actualized American dream visual innovation. The message is old- the simple-minded way black young (he found his way to a Hollywood fashioned and unironic: With men are usually presented. He is contract)… determination and support, a person conventionally hypersensitive at first, can overcome adversity. Even in given to opaque matter-of-factness and …The film is a composite of sure-fire scenes of conflict, the pace is aggressive disdain. At first. But his melodramatic effects, like the scene in measured. psychiatrist, played by Washington, which Antwone drops by his old foster discovers a young man who was home (where the abusive daughter still Like the persona of Washington abandoned, tortured and abused. lives with the sadistic mom) to himself, Antwone Fisher is intense but announce that he's "still standing and dignified. In fact, the movie is beyond The reality of what Washington still strong," and the one where his reproach, in all the best--and also achieves is rare in contemporary film. newly discovered family gathers and emotionally claustrophobic--senses of Neither the villains nor the heroes or prepares (at roughly an hour's notice) a the word. It's hard for me to love. Yet it the mixtures of both are ever reduced feast that replicates the one in his feels hard-hearted not to try. to cartoons. dreams--the groaning board that he never got to experience as a child…. Washington's on-camera work, as a Geoff Pevere Toronto Star naval psychiatrist, is as grounded and Psychologically, the movie doesn't commanding as one has come to For his directorial debut, the actor make sense. Antwone's sexual expect of the Oscar winner in such Denzel Washington has selected more reticence is supposed to be the result of roles. (That the doctor has his own or less the kind of project you'd expect the abuse he suffered as a little boy, communication problems with his wife [he] would … and the belligerence he demonstrates is a nice, if overemphatic, shrinks-are- …. If you've seen any of the more high- among his fellow sailors--responding to human touch.) But Derek Luke's clean, fibre Washington vehicles - Courage racist insults--is supposed to derive direct performance as Fisher is the real Under Fire, Titans, Hurricane, John Q. - from his anger at his foster mother, who attention-getter, because Luke himself, you know what you're in for. though black herself, liked to hurl racial an unknown actor, is a surprise… epithets at him in an effort to break his … Not only is Antwone likeable, open- spirit. Wouldn't you think, though, that if Stanley Crouch Daily News (New York) faced and soft-spoken - not bad, as the women were responsible for Antwone's convention goes, just misunderstood - childhood misery, women would be the So many of our children are in trouble, he radiates reachability. He even writes target of his anger? And is there a from coast to coast, male and female. poetry, the dead giveaway of the healthy young black man who wouldn't Many things have happened to them shackled sensitive soul. be riled by a racist slur? and to those they love. They become bitter; they become violent; they show Contrary to certain other emotionally I have a particular antipathy to scenes power through obnoxiousness and dysfunctional movie characters - like in which the ill-treated protagonist tells intimidation. They are frightened almost Punch-Drunk Love's Adam Sandler - Lee's Antwone is a wound just waiting always dovetail well with what is an …If ''Antwone Fisher'' is a bluntly to be healed. intimate human drama, although the inspirational film promoting the benefits many close-ups help. And an anemic of a tough-love style of therapy, it …It's hard to imagine that a real life subplot involving the denial and pain in doesn't pretend that Antwone's could conform quite so snugly to the what appears to be Davenport's perfect breakthroughs are quick fixes. Where conventions of the Hollywood triumph- marriage seems more grafted on than ''Good Will Hunting'' implied that one of-the-human-spirit scenario, but that's organically integrated into the film. good cry could work a psychological precisely what the movie version of miracle, ''Antwone Fisher'' Antwone Fisher's self-scripted life does: ROGER EBERT Chicago Sun Times acknowledges that such a cry is just the It's the story of a real life that feels like first of many on a long, bumpy a movie. But perhaps that's why it I do not cry easily at the movies; years emotional road. If the movie's sugar- became a movie in the first place. If the can go past without tears. I have coated ending leaves a hint of story didn't conform to the standards of noticed that when I am deeply affected saccharine, its beautifully balanced a conservative feel-good, family-values emotionally, it is not by sadness so performances and faith in its characters kind of entertainment, Denzel much as by goodness. Antwone Fisher keep it honest despite itself. Washington probably wouldn't have has a confrontation with his past, and a made of movie of it. speech to the mother who abandoned Charles Taylor Salon.com him, and a reunion with his family, that All Things Considered (NPR) create great, heartbreaking, joyous …. "Antwone Fisher" is "Ordinary BOB MONDELLO reporting: moments. People" with a nice warm black shrink instead of a nice warm Jewish shrink. Derek Luke has a naturalness on STEPHEN HOLDEN New York Times It's an ode to family and connections screen that's not unlike that of his co- and -- above all -- to feeling. And it's star… Hollywood is notoriously adept at just as squishy and sob-inducing as …As the doctor, Washington is equally punching emotional buttons that send a that description makes it sound. sharp and his direction avoids most of lump into your throat and make your Nothing about the movie's psychology the sentimental traps of a tale that eyes well up. But when was the last makes sense. Antwone grows up being covers familiar territory. Think "Ordinary time those Pavlovian responses were abused by women, but only takes his People" or "Good Will Hunting": connected to a lode of emotional truth anger out on men. He's a stammering concerned psychiatrist, angry young volatile enough to resonate long after virgin, and while it makes sense that a man learning to trust and grow. the movie was over? 'Antwone Fisher' sexually abused child would be afraid of … is a movie so profoundly in touch sex, the movie never considers the That "Antwone Fisher" is inspired by a with its own feelings that it transcends possibility that he might also be true story and has a screenplay by the its formulaic tics. If the inspirational sexually brutal, both out of a desire for real Antwone Fisher doesn't make its ending slaps two too many synthetic revenge and because that's what he's inspirational terrain any less well cherries on the sundae, the movie still learned. It opens with a jaw-dropper of traveled, but the path the movie takes induces the sort of catharsis that leaves a dream sequence where the young through it is disarming enough to make you feeling released, enlightened and in Antwone is surrounded by generations it feel surprisingly fresh. During one of deeper touch with humanity. … of his ancestors at a family dinner (it Fisher's therapy sessions, his doctor looks like the Pilgrims' feast reimagined hands the lad a book, "The Slave …Early in Antwone's therapy the doctor by Toni Morrison for a long-distance Community," which argues that the sort gives him John W. Blassingame's book commercial) and ends with that dream of abuse he suffered at the hands of ''The Slave Community,'' which being realized. foster parents reflects a pattern theorizes that the harsh discipline stretching back to abuse their ancestors Antwone (like countless children like Probably the movie's most suffered at the hands of slave owners. him) endured as a foster child growing characteristic moment is a montage of If that insight has been in a mainstream up in Cleveland was an internalized black children waiting to be adopted. It Hollywood movie before, I've missed it, reflection of the abuse his ancestors encompasses the entire project, which and it's one of many gracefully suffered at the hands of slave owners. is basically an extended public service trenchant observations that keep Those slave owners, it suggests, announcement ("Hello, I'm Denzel "Antwone Fisher" intellectually loomed as punishing surrogate parents, Washington. Won't you please open engaging, even as it's bringing a tear to wielding far more authority than the your heart and home to one of these your eye. I'm Bob Mondello. slaves' own biological parents. children?") The aura of worthiness and virtue and spiritual inspiration -- deadly Doris Toumarkine Film Journal To any child, the behavior of an to the movies -- hangs over the whole International ultimate authority figure, no matter how sodden enterprise. If Oprah hasn't yet oppressive, tends to define how that dedicated a program to it, just wait. Antwone Fisher is so beautifully acted child wields parental power later in life. and directed, it's clear that Washington According to the theory, that pattern of …. It's the less-than-virtuous characters most certainly has a new career ahead instilled self-loathing established in the who really stand out here. Like Novella of him if he so chooses. Yet not all of days of slavery has been passed down Nelson as Antwone's abusive foster Washington's choices work: The wide from generation to generation…. mother, a woman who addresses her screen and considerable length don't charges as "nigger" and expects to be addressed by them as "my dear." to Fisher's anxious reunion with his Nelson has a quiet, deadly authority. “The Diva” 3BlackChicksEnterprises. biological mother (the amazing Viola She's an insidious villain, one who Davis…)…Fisher's soliloquy to this masks her sadism in the guise of doing I do have to admit that I was a bit haunted woman is one of those good works. It takes only a few seconds disappointed that the images of some moments that happens often in life, but of screen time to understand why the of the black folks were so negative, but not enough in movies. It's an exchange little boys in her charge quake at the this is a true story and it is Antwone's that respects both sides, without sight of her. and I can't expect him to sugar coat his declaring a winner. Theaters will need story because of my racial sensibilities. industrial-strength mops to swab up the If there's any reason to see "Antwone And my lord, how did he survive it all? tears this sequence will trigger. Fisher," it's the five minutes of screen time given to the wonderful actress Onion AV Club Scott Tobias Antwone Fisher is a deceptively simple Viola Davis. …Here, Davis shines in a movie with a deeply felt message: small appearance as Antwone's …Somewhere in the space between Sometimes we must go back in order to mother. When she lays eyes on the son real life and the silver screen, the truth go forward. she abandoned years before, she has been sucked into a burbling morass backs away from him as if he were an of clichés, as if Fisher and Washington Kenneth Turan Los AngelesTimes apparition of past sins risen to haunt are viewing the past through the dusty her. Davis has the gift of appearing filter of self-help books and daytime Not only is it unusual that this emotional impassive yet conveying a range of television. In the story's broadest story of how a damaged boy became a emotions zipping back and forth strokes, the audience can only take whole man made it to the screen at all, beneath her surface like telegraph Fisher at his word; in its specifics, it it is a measure of its strengths that it signals through an overcrowded wire. In doesn't seem remotely convincing… No overcomes storytelling flaws that would the few minutes she appears onscreen, fancy schooling would be necessary to have disabled a weaker project. For she makes this engineered moisture- tease out the young man's problems, there are moments when this film plays squeezer seem as if it's inhabited by at because Luke makes psychiatry easy, as overly earnest and conventional, least one real person. leaving Washington with only the moments when issues resolve too tidily clearest threads connecting cause with or do not resolve at all. Village Voice by Michael Atkinson effect. Abandonment issues? Cut to Luke's thugged-up best friend losing his But because you'd have to be a stone Denzel Washington's … teary life in a convenience-store robbery. not to be moved by "Antwone Fisher's" directorial debut, Antwone Fisher, the Uncertainty with women? Cut to his story of hope, forgiveness and love, its mush-minded stencil carefully traced boyhood sessions with a sexually focus on the power of the family to heal would be Good Will Hunting… abusive babysitter. A quick temper? Cut what it once destroyed, those difficulties to a scene where his moody foster seem insignificant and beside the point The deep oddness… is lost on mother ties his hands to a pole and compared to the good things that are Washington, who directs with proficient belt-whips him into unconsciousness. going on. blandness charged only occasionally by By the time Luke recites his poem "Who organic acting moments. (A late Will Cry For The Little Boy?," he might These strengths go further than a Thanksgiving dinner scene is an as well be conducting therapy sessions vibrant acting debut by star Derek Luke uncommonly pleasurable thicket of by himself. Much like Good Will and a satisfying first time behind the bickerings, gibes, and family noise, Hunting, which it resembles camera for co-star Denzel Washington. kneecapped by Fisher's ham-handed superficially and otherwise, Antwone They go beyond the film's willingness to presentation of a self-pitying poem.) Fisher masks a behind-the-scenes skirt the sentimental in showing a world Everything—even life on an aircraft story that's far more inspiring than the that feels real even though affirming carrier—is sentimentalized, and the phony uplift that makes it onto the things happen there, a world where wretched tribulations of Fisher's screen. even the worst stories can have childhood (abandonment, foster-home positive endings. torture, flogging, sexual abuse, etc.) are Carrie Rickey Philadelphia Inquirer tastefully suggested rather than Rarest and most impressive of all, explored. …Unlike most inspirationals and "Antwone Fisher" is a serious drama weepers, this one is set squarely within set in the African American community, The myth of the talking-cure miracle— the African American community. It one that showcases powerful, avuncular therapist eschews reverberates with themes both confrontational scenes between black psychobabble, cuts to the bone, and universal and specific, from the need actors that compel attention … initiates the thorny patient's for adoptees to search for biological regenerative outburst—is cheaply parents to the sting of black-on-black seductive, but Washington is a feel- racism. good pushover, as well as schmaltzy militarist. (Antwone Fisher is, in the …Washington strikes a precarious end, a navy recruitment ad writ large balance between the emotional and the and cozy.) We are meant to be inspirational. It is to his credit as a inspired, and someone very well may. director and an actor that the film builds