Based on a true story, and with a screenplay written by the real Antwone Fisher (who had never before written a screenplay), this movie is also Denzel Washington's first outing as a director, and Derek Luke's first starring role as Antwone. All these firsts made this a movie I wanted to see out of curiosity more than anything else, and in the end I was mildly impressed with it, although the movie is definitely not without its flaws.
In particular, the first hour or so of the movie is very slowly paced. At times, it was tempting to turn away, but there was enough of interest that kept popping up to make me stick with it. In the end, this turned into an interesting enough journey of self-discovery, as we delve more and more into Antwone's past to try to discover what childhood demons have caused him to grow up into an angry young man. As slow-paced as I thought the movie was it's ironic that I also felt that it moved too swiftly through some things. Antwone's anger seems largely resolved by a handful of sessions with Commander Davenport, the Navy psychiatrist (played by Washington) and we really only see a couple of flashes of anger - hardly enough, in my view, to have him sent off to the psychiatrist in the first place. (I know that the fight depicted was probably one in a series. In real life, it made sense to send him to Davenport, but in the strict context of the movie it seemed a bit extreme.) Antwone's relationship with Cheryl (Joy Bryant) also seemed to develop very quickly. He takes her out once, all of a sudden she's his girlfriend and he's in love, then they're sharing a hotel room. (For a guy who has no experience with romance he's a natural!)
But in spite of these inconsistencies and the slow pace of the first hour or so, the movie picks up nicely in the second half as Antwone begins to discover who he is and where he came from. The second half is actually quite interesting. Although it doesn't overcome some of the flaws I mentioned above, it nevertheless turns what had been looking for a while like a mediocre movie into a pretty decent one.
6/10
In particular, the first hour or so of the movie is very slowly paced. At times, it was tempting to turn away, but there was enough of interest that kept popping up to make me stick with it. In the end, this turned into an interesting enough journey of self-discovery, as we delve more and more into Antwone's past to try to discover what childhood demons have caused him to grow up into an angry young man. As slow-paced as I thought the movie was it's ironic that I also felt that it moved too swiftly through some things. Antwone's anger seems largely resolved by a handful of sessions with Commander Davenport, the Navy psychiatrist (played by Washington) and we really only see a couple of flashes of anger - hardly enough, in my view, to have him sent off to the psychiatrist in the first place. (I know that the fight depicted was probably one in a series. In real life, it made sense to send him to Davenport, but in the strict context of the movie it seemed a bit extreme.) Antwone's relationship with Cheryl (Joy Bryant) also seemed to develop very quickly. He takes her out once, all of a sudden she's his girlfriend and he's in love, then they're sharing a hotel room. (For a guy who has no experience with romance he's a natural!)
But in spite of these inconsistencies and the slow pace of the first hour or so, the movie picks up nicely in the second half as Antwone begins to discover who he is and where he came from. The second half is actually quite interesting. Although it doesn't overcome some of the flaws I mentioned above, it nevertheless turns what had been looking for a while like a mediocre movie into a pretty decent one.
6/10