Grade: B-

Verdict: An involving, inspirational drama that sometimes falls prey to its sob-story trappings.

Details: Starring Derek Luke and Denzel Washington. Directed by Washington. Rated PG-13 for violence, language and sexual themes. Two hours.

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DVD notes:

The DVD includes only passable extras. There's a mildly interesting documentary, which does include interviews with the real Antwone Fisher and an often boring commentary track involving Washington, who doesn't talk enough, and producer Todd Black, who speaks way too much.

Review:
A lot of movies have tear-jerker endings, but "Antwone Fisher," Denzel Washington's directorial debut, has a tear-jerker beginning. A small African-American boy is in an empty field, looking up at a house. He walks up to the door, where a huge African-American man takes his hand and leads him inside.

There, he's greeted by a Dickensian feast laid out on a table surrounded by men and women representing every aspect of black history. Mammies and 1890s dandies, hippies and hipster jazz musicians, men in 1970s leisure-suit chic and women in sassy 1920s finery. The scene recalls the finale of "Places in the Heart," in which all the characters, dead and alive, gathered in some celestial church where there are no boundaries between rich and poor, black and white.

"Antwone Fisher" is based on a true story, written by Fisher himself (he also did the screenplay). Fisher (Derek Luke) is a hotheaded Navy ensign with serious rage issues. Within the movie's first 10 minutes, he's fined, demoted and assigned to Navy psychiatrist Jerome Davenport (Washington) for beating up a white sailor. Interestingly, the film clearly establishes that the victim is a jerk, probably a racist jerk, but the jerky thing he did was not especially racially motivated. And Fisher's angry response is also clearly shown to be way out of line.

Insulted by the notion that "something's gotta be wrong with me" because he slugged a white boy, Fisher initially refuses to talk. So Davenport, the type who smokes a pipe (or should if he doesn't), simply waits him out. When Fisher finally opens up, we witness, via flashbacks, his miserable childhood — full of cruelty, criticism, abandonment, street violence, even molestation.

His foster mother, Mrs. Tate (the excellent Novella Nelson), appears to be a good churchgoing woman, but when she gets Antwone alone, she's likely to tie him up in the basement and beat him with wet rags. Or remind him that his mom, who's in prison, didn't want him. That nobody could want a stupid, nasty boy like him.

Antwone survives, but he's a badly damaged man. He expresses his anguish in a poem that ends with the touching plea, "Who will cry for the little boy who cries inside of me?"

Inevitably, a father-son bond grows between Fisher and Davenport. It all points to a neatly tied-up happy ending, where Antwone finds a new family with Davenport and his wife (who have their own problems) and settles down into a serious relationship with Cheryl (Joy Bryant), a comely Navy recruit. But the movie's smarter than that. It takes us on another path that's satisfying, but too drawn out and borderline Hallmark-card hokey.

If this movie had been made in the '60s, it wouldn't have been about African-Americans and it would've probably starred, say, Gregory Peck and Steve McQueen. And if Washington hadn't been interested in directing it, the picture would've probably landed on the USA Network. Riddled with cable-movie problems of every possible persuasion, "Antwone Fisher" often has the feel of an old-fashioned well-made movie (as in those crushingly domestic well-made plays).

Washington's direction is orderly, honest and solid, with sharp twinges of emotion (sort of like some of his performances). However, as of yet, he takes far more risks in his acting. There's nothing terribly wrong with "Antwone Fisher," but there's little exciting about it.

Perhaps a director more in touch with his own rage — Spike Lee or Paul Schrader — would have better served the material. Still, Washington shows promise of dicier films in his future, and he's already an actors' director, eliciting fine performances from his cast. Newcomer Luke is especially good, conveying the same powerful combination of charm and intensity you find in Mekhi Phifer.

"Antwone Fisher" is a pretty good movie that could've been a pretty great one. It has its flaws, but it has heart, integrity and hope, too. Sounds like a fine Christmas film to me.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution