Antwone Fisher

Washington's first film as director, Antwone Fisher is a based on the turbulent life of - one Antwone Fisher. The story behind the movie is something of a fairy tale. Fisher, a security guard at Sony Pictures, managed to get his screenplay produced on the lot. The story the movie tells in flashback is also a fairy tale. Antwone is born in prison, abandoned by his mother, and placed in the hands of an evil foster mother. These two 'true' tales hinge on the fairy godmother figure of Davenport, Fisher's Navy psychiatrist, played by Washington. Davenport's patient commitment allows his angry charge to confront his past and reach 'closure', thus liberating him, one presumes, to write the screenplay - just as Washington's support was crucial in getting it into production. It's too bad that Davenport comes across as that most hackneyed character, the shrink as surrogate father. As director, Washington struggles to impose shape or coherence on a story which stutters from one standard set-up to the next.