by Peter Morris in Los Angeles
Double Oscar winner DENZEL WASHINGTON does double duty on this film making his directorial debut as well as doing what he’s best known for in front of the camera and it has to be said he does a fine job on both counts.
The background to the film makes it even more interesting in that the “Antwone Fisher” of the title was working as a security guard at Sony Pictures in Los Angeles when he asked his boss for time off to trace his family - having grown up in foster homes and never having met his mother who gave birth to him in prison. By the time Antwone had finished telling his story he got the time off and while he was gone his boss had told the story to a number of producers at the studio who all expressed an interest in making it in to a film!
To cut a long story short, and with a determination highlighted by his character in the film, Antwone held out for the chance to write the story himself which, not surprisingly, put most of them off! The exception being TODD BLACK ("A Knight‘s Tale") who told Antwone to give up his day job and paid him to start writing what eventually became this script.
DENZEL was captivated by the script and despite a reluctance to direct and star he agreed to do so to get the film financed. Then the story really gets Hollywood......
DENZEL decided that an unknown actor should play Antwone in the film so that the audience would have no baggage to deal with and amongst the many who tried was the eventual winner DEREK LUKE who was, at the time, employed working in the gift shop at Sony Studios!
OK so you don’t need to know all that to enjoy the film but ‘hey‘ it’s a good story!.. as is the film. It tells of Antwone‘s life in foster homes and how he eventually joins the Navy as an angry young man willing to fight about almost anything. This leads to a psychiatric evaluation by an officer played by Washington and his eventual coming to terms with the demons of his past.
Antwone Fisher‘s life was rough by most standards and there will be a few tissues on the floors of cinemas where this one is shown but at the same time there are quite a few laughs too. DEREK LUKE gives an excellent debut performance as Antwone Fisher as does his love interest played by the beautiful JOY BRYANT. WASHINGTON gives his usual top notch performance in the supporting role and has assembled a team which makes the film look as if it had a much larger budget than the $12-14 million it actually cost. There are also some very notable performances by little known actors in the minor roles.
It’s hard to categorise it which isn’t bad thing although you could do far worse for a date movie which won’t have either date moaning.. it’s certainly optimistic despite dark subject matter and it’s one of my favourite films of the year so far.
Incidentally Antwone Fisher rewrote the script 44 times and the bits that didn’t make it went into his book “Finding Fish” which topped the New York Times best-sellers list and returned to the top ten on the release of the movie.
UK Release Date: 16th May 2003
Celebrities Worldwide Rating: 9 out of 10
David Jensen Photography:
https://www.davidjensen.co.uk/
