WATCH NOW
While he may be an excellent sailor Antwone Fisher has a bad temper which drags him to the office of the base psychiatrist, Dr Jerome Davenport. He suffers from selective mutism. Dr Davenport says that he can wait and someone will talk to him eventually. According to naval protocol, the physician is obliged to conduct three sessions of therapy. However, their first and second sessions will remain unused until pain stricken Antwone decides to converse. This is why week after week he attends the session while the doctor does paperwork until one day they speak: “Doc, I understand that you like to fight.” “That’s the only way some people learn.” “But you pay the price for teaching them.” Antwone Fisher features a brilliant performance by Luke who plays Fisher and Washington plays the role of Davenport. This conversation is not based on fiction, but rather reality. This is a story that happened to the person who wrote the film screenplay. The picture starts with the routine life of the military in San Diego and culminates in such shocks of truth that I cry with sadness when I watch the movie.
I don’t cry easily when watching a movie. I can go several years without shedding a tear. I have observed that my sadness triggers emotions in me, but mostly it is goodness that makes me emote. In Antwone Fisher, there is a scene he has with his mother where he confronts his past and then there is the reunion with his family, all of which form powerful and tragic happy moments.
Antwone Fisher was a foster child who suffered the wrath of a disturbing upbringing. When he turned 18, he tried enlisting in the Navy, but ended up going to a therapist due to his violent tendencies. This film portrays a deeply touching story of the life of Antwone Fisher. An intricately woven fusion of events and characters, both fictitious and real. A concoction crafted for a sensational piece of entertainment. The nuance and concept behind this film is far from scratch. Unlike fiction, there is a level of reality blended within this multi layered storyline, which can be rather illustrative upon the viewer. Not only does it enhance one’s ability to peek into the life of Antwone, it teaches various lessons that be beneficial to oneself. The characters provide more than one single perception when observed, and thus, further develop upon deeper analysis. It certainly wasn’t easy for Fisher to succeed, but with immense determination, he surely did. std
He received yet another shock when a robbery resulted in the demise of his closest childhood friend. Being Antwone in a constitutional check-up suggests means test to an interview offer, and crime is the last thing he is capable of, so that suffices for pseudo reasoning.
Along with Antwone’s weekly sessions, he meets Cheryl Smolley (Joy Bryant), a young sailor. He attempts to woo her with shyness which manifests itself in her asking Davenport for dating advice and trying to conceal from her the dire fact that he is still a virgin. Their romance develops in a touch of a storyline that is completely turned upside down and ruthless towards realism where a movie pure romance doesn’t end in bed within two scenes or even few. He is suffering, she makes him fight. Seeing beyond her beliefs, he possesses the potential for a man whose heart is good.
Davenport fights with the young man telling him everything lies within resolving the need of one’s past, and one must revisit his history. Ohio is the only state he is sure will have his family, and he has never anything left wanting to/from the seeking closure. At first Fisher is quite resistant to these doctor’s instructions, but he gets on a plane which Cheryl convinced him to do. And that is all, watching the scenes from the start puts too much emphasis on blocking they do powerful things to the confrontations.
I won’t get into too much detail, but I’d like to point out three notable performances from this section of the movie: Vernee Watson-Johnson as Antwone’s Aunt, Earl Billings as Antwone’s uncle and Viola Davis as his mother. Earlier this year Davis played a maid in “Far from Heaven” and later a space-station psychiatrist in “Solaris.” Now this role… you’d be hard pressed to believing it is the same actress. She says close to five words while Antwone pours out his heart in a gut-wrenching monologue.
This part of the story runs parallel to the narrative on Dr Davenport and his wife, Berta (Salli Richardson). There are issues in their history, too, and in a sense Davenport and Fisher are getting therapy together. For the audience, it is a bit anticlimactic to watch Davenport has his last selfless conversation with Antwone because he is so caring towards him, and the film has reaches it’s emotional peak in Ohio and there is no other place we want it to go. The relationship between the two men, however, is under the careful and tender lens of Washington the director. It’s hard to believe Derek Luke is a newcomer, and easy to see why Washington cast him to play Antwone Fisher.
To watch more movies like (Antwone Fisher (2002)) visit 123Movies.
Also Watch for more movies like:
