ANTWONE FISHER

Rating: 5

Denzel Washington may just win himself another Oscar nomination this year, though this time out it will be for directing ANTWONE FISHER, one of the most moving films of this or any other year. Not that his performance is anything but sterling, but the nuanced performance he coaxes from Derek Luke, who plays Fisher is nothing short of sublime.
Inspired by the real Antwone Fisher’s life story, the film begins near the end, with Fisher dreaming of himself as a young boy, welcomed by a sea of friendly faces to a family feast at which he is the guest of honor. The warmth of the occasion is palpable, with Fisher taking the hands that are offered him and returning the smiles with his whole heart and soul. When he’s wakened, it’s to his life as a sailor on a Navy carrier and before breakfast, Fisher is once again in trouble, this time for attacking a fellow sailor on board ship. As recreated here, the exchange that leads to the fight is as innocuous as they come, but Fisher, reacting to the inner demons that plague him, reacts by viciously throwing himself on the other man, taking him down and earning himself a reduction in rank and a psychiatric evaluation.  
His psychiatrist Jerome Davenport, played by Washington with the sort of strength that doesn’t need to prove itself, somehow sees past Fisher’s layers of hostility and self-loathing and, miraculously, glimpses the boy we saw in the dream, the one that still lives within Fisher. As Davenport gradually breaks down Fisher’s barriers, one at a time, each one a small triumph, we see the nightmare of Fisher’s childhood. Abandoned by his convict mother, his father dead before he was born, Fisher endured a foster mother who abused him and allowed him to be abused by others both psychically and physically. Violence was the fabric of his daily life, dispensed without a thought and never a word of pity.
Here’s why this film is not a downer. Each incident in the past has a parallel in the present showing Fisher slowly, painfully slaying the demons within and, eventually, allowing himself to accept the possibility of happiness, even love. Luke changes chameleon-like, his eyes going from dull dead despair to shining, even tender, and then back again as obstacles present themselves and he slides a little and then bounces back.
The script by Fisher uses simple dialogue to excellent effect. The idle small talk of a first date with a fellow sailor (a radiant Joy Bryant), for Fisher, literally a first date, is played with such heart that there is no mistaking the profound emotions lurking beneath the words. Through scenes between Davenport and his wife (Salli Richardson) that are subtle domestic tragedies, it becomes apparent that Fisher is not the only one in pain. In a very real sense, Davenport is committed to healing Fisher not only for the sailor’s own good, but to heal himself as well, and to stave off the hopelessness of a sterile marriage.
The ending, which brings Fisher’s dream full circle, will make more than one stout heart weep. And that’s nothing to be ashamed of. The unlikely joyousness of this film makes that joy all the more intense for it having been found, recognized, and most of all accepted, against all odds.