Stephen King could also be finest recognized for his horror tales involving monsters and homicide, however he simply as typically offers with headier, extra mature themes of alcoholism and home abuse. Concerning the former, King can converse from expertise, having wrestled with substance habit all through the Eighties. Concerning the former, he fortunately did not expertise it first-hand however is drawn to tales of youngsters who’re victimized by their alleged caregivers. This was actually true of his summertime epic “It,” which featured kids’s home turmoil as a parallel to the supernatural monster stalking them.
As such, King is delicate to tales that mishandle themes of abuse. There’s a sure sort of Hollywood melodrama that explores the psychological trauma skilled by abuse victims, however that wraps up their tales in a neat little bow, declaring that abuse can merely be “gotten over” with just a few journeys to a shrink and a few sort of hackneyed reconciliation.
That is actually the explanation why King hated Denzel Washington’s 2002 directorial debut, “Antwone Fisher.” That movie, primarily based on the real-life Antwone Fisher’s autobiography, was a survival story of a younger man raised by an abusive foster household, and who was sexually molested by his foster household’s grownup niece. He spent just a few years dwelling on the road, making his manner as a legal. Antwone is wracked by guilt, having witnessed a buddy be killed in a theft gone awry. He grew up indignant, solely capable of finding solace within the U.S. Navy. It was there that he was provided therapy by Navy shrink Dr. Davenport (Washington) who gently helped him by his rage and trauma.
“Antwone Fisher” was fairly properly reviewed, racking up a 78% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes (primarily based on 148 evaluations). It was additionally a modest hit, making $23 million on a $12 million price range.
It was additionally a movie that Stephen King known as “sentimental tripe” in a 2007 article he wrote for EW.
Stephen King thought Antwone Fisher was ‘sentimental tripe’
The 2007 article in query was King’s very first piece for EW, and he roughly laid out a broad editorial on the present state of leisure. He declared that he was keen on Jonathan Mostow’s “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” and barely much less keen on Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later.” Notably, although, he hated “Antwone Fisher” in addition to the high-profile demise penalty drama “The Lifetime of David Gale.” About these movies, King wrote the next:
“Hated ‘Antwone Fisher’; ditto ‘The Lifetime of David Gale.’ Do not inform me the previous is best than the latter, and do not throw a bunch of sentimental tripe at me and name it social commentary. ‘Antwone Fisher’ is very annoying on this regard, a $9 Hallmark card that quantities to ‘Roses are pink, Violets are blue, Life is hard, However you may get by.’ I knew that already, thanks, now go away.”
Regardless of usually optimistic evaluations for “Antwone Fisher,” a minimum of some critics have been on King’s aspect. Nev Pierce’s assessment for the BBC was, in actual fact, even harsher than King’s, saying that “There may be not a single stunning, shocking, and even mildly diverting, second, on this predictable, cliché-ridden, bland, self-consciously worthy waste of time.” He mentioned that the story was extra apt for a TV movie-of-the-week, and that the Fisher character, as performed by Derek Luke, was horribly one-dimensional. Certainly, many of the damaging evaluations for “Antwone Fisher” had comparable complaints, calling the drama mawkish or treacly, and recognizing Fisher as a bland protagonist.
King, nonetheless, discovered loads of firm in his hatred of Alan Parker’s “The Lifetime of David Gale.” That movie solely earned a mere 19% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes and impressed Roger Ebert to jot down a zero-star assessment. Few will leap to that movie’s protection.
