After awhile, you forget that the folks you're watching are black. Antwone Fisher presents Black Americans as middle-class and ordinary. You don't have to think "This is a black movie" at all. It's a fine example of vision and leadership by all involved, including its director Denzel Washington.Washington's Antwone Fisher is so good that you're effortlessly pulled into the story of a young sailor who is tortured by his horrendous childhood without the slightest fuss. Washington's direction is pure, workmanlike getterdone. You'd swear Clint Eastwood was behind the camera. Not a bad comparison for a first directorial effort, huh? You can read the other comments to get a more in-depth synopsis; I don't care to recount it here. Simply accept that Washington delivers the story without schmaltz or scenery-chewing. There's such a natural feeling to AF that the suspension-of-disbelief disconnect that one feels for awhile in most movies is missing here.I even enjoyed the way the US Navy was portrayed--a fighting force that will invest in the health and well-being of one of its members by sending this angry and miserable young man to a shrink instead of just to the brig.The greatest strength of Antwone Fisher is its attention to, its homage to human decency.

"And the time came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom" - Anais Nin Marcel Proust says, "The real voyage of discovery lies in not seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes." Author and screenwriter Antwone Fisher joined the U.S. Navy to see new landscapes but the demons of his past prevented him from seeing the world through new eyes. Based on his autobiography "Finding Fish" written many years after the events, his story is dramatized in the film Antwone Fisher, Denzel Washington's first directorial effort. It is a heartfelt if somewhat formulaic look at the painful process of moving from being consumed by one's past to being able to live life in present time.Required to attend therapy sessions after several outbursts of anger at the base, the painful aspects of his childhood are shown in flashback as the grown up Antwone (Derek Luke) recounts his life in sessions with Navy Psychiatrist Jerome Davenport (Denzel Washington). He is at first unwilling to talk, but when he begins, the floodgates are opened. After his father was shot to death by a girlfriend and Antwone was abandoned by his mother after being released from prison, he was placed in a foster home where he lived for fourteen years, suffering humiliation and sexual abuse. According to Antwone, the treatment by his foster mother Mrs. Tate (Novella Nelson) who referred to him only as "nigga" and by his cousin Nadine (Yolonda Ross) was in fact much worse than shown on the screen.The only friend he has is a local by named Jesse (Jascha Washington) who, later in the film, only adds to his feelings of abandonment. It is difficult to build a film around psychiatric sessions but it was done successfully in Ordinary People and Good Will Hunting with a great deal more dramatic interest but it succeeds here because of the dominant performances of Washington and Luke, though the film's attempt to compress eleven years into a few months seems a bit too facile. Davenport's humanity and warmth, however, allows Fisher to feel safe enough to discuss his difficult past and Cheryl (Joy Bryant), his new girlfriend who is also in the Navy, supports him in his struggle to achieve a breakthrough.With Cheryl's help and Dr. Davenport's counseling, Antwone develops enough self-esteem to return to Cleveland and begin the journey to try and find his mother in order to complete the past. What comes through in Derek Luke's incredible performance is Antwone's longing for acceptance, dramatized in a heartbreaking dream shown at the beginning of the film in which he is the guest of honor at a banquet filled with people who love him. Comedian Mort Sahl once said that "people just have to remember what we're all here for: to find our way home..." Antwone Fisher touches not only on the longing of one young person to find his way home but reaches all those who have cried themselves to sleep, not knowing the joy of being loved.

Somewhere along the way the story of ANTWONE FISHER misses being the sort of film it starts out to be. The boy's miserable past is merely hinted at in a series of abusive moments that don't really correspond to why his anger management problems are so out of control. It takes psychiatric help from DENZEL WASHINGTON to set Antwone on the path of redefining himself as a person.And it all comes down to: trace your history, find your mother (he never knew his father who was killed), and reunite with your relatives. It seems a pat solution to a deep rooted problem and it gets rather superficial treatment from director Denzel, who gives it a Hallmark Hall of Fame sort of presentation--shifting midway through the story to sentimental theatrics with Fisher surrounded by a boatload of smiling relatives.Nothing about the screenplay is very original--you know, boy with abusive past grows up with a chip on his shoulder--and there are no new discoveries made here by either psychiatrist Denzel or the viewing audience.DEREK Luke and JOY BRYANT are fine as the leads who find tender romance together and begin the search for Luke's parent after an abusive foster mother finally gives him the name of his dead father. This leads to a reunion with an aunt and, finally, with the mother who abandoned him. This scene is extremely well acted and poignant, as the mother is unable to say a word to her son as he presents himself to her.But at the midway point in the story, where Denzel suggests the boy trace his roots, the story becomes overladen with sentiment to play at the heartstrings. And the final scene, with Denzel relating why his own relationship with his wife has been so strained, is just too pat when it's tied in with his client/patient relationship with Fisher.Summing up: A good movie could have been a great one with a stronger story of Fisher's past as the centerpiece.

Whatever you become in your life,you must never forget that you have roots.This is the story of true facts that was made into a beautiful and moving movie! I dare to say that this movie is well underrated.This shows us a reality of life...the more evil surrounds you ,the better person you become.Trust in your instincts and be aware that the ideal of life is to live it happy...without grudges,without living "under a rock" . The movie concept is more that interesting...connecting the storytelling with real life events...keeping us aware of everything..from facts to emotions! Bless these people and make everyone happy ! See it,i recommend it to all young people.it's not about racism it's about how to live your life !