Antwone Fisher

[softwareNerd]

*** Warning: Minor Spoliers about Antwone Fisher ***

Antwone Fisher, is based on a real-life story. A tale about a boy brought up in foster care and orphanages, this movie is about the triumph of the human spirit. More specifically, triumph in this sense: an individual can rise above his upbringing. One might phrase it as: the individual vs. his family upbringing.

When the tale begins, Antwone is a grown man. The other main character is a psychologist, played by Denzel Washington, who is trying to help him. Antwone's childhood is shown as flashbacks. These flashbacks are not woven into a plot. There is a separate plot in "the present", as the grown Antwone wrestles to control outbursts of violent anger, and tries to find his real family. The implication is that these two are related, and that the resolution of one will resolve the other.

In the flashbacks, one sees how the young Antwone was ill-treated; one sees the fear he experienced. One never sees anything to indicate he would grow up any different from his foster-siblings. One knows he did, but one does not know how or why. So, while his volition -- his ability to break from his past -- is an obvious assumption one can make, one does not see it dramatized. This lack of plot made the movie come across as a documentary.

The story set in the present did have a plot. Paradoxically, the minor theme emerging from this plot -- where Antwone searches for his biological family -- actually undercuts the major theme of the movie. The implication that he needs to find his family, in order to get his life on track, undercuts the message that he made himself what he is, even though he did not have any real, loving family. One ends up with a message that family matters, but not too much; you can make something of yourself without family, but you'll not be complete, never fully at peace.

My main complaint about this movie is that it spent all its time showing the cruelty of his upbringing and dramatizing his search for family, but it never dramatizing how he became what he is. Nevertheless, more as a documentary, I liked it. In my book, it's a 6 out of 10.