Antwone Fisher, written by and about--you guessed it--real-life security guard-turned-author/screenwriter Antwone Fisher, starts off well, with a gorgeous dream sequence featuring a young boy at a family feast whose attendees span generations of African-American history. Then Antwone (Derek Luke) wakes up. We soon learn that the awestruck little boy at the feast is, in fact, a very angry young sailor aboard a Navy ship. Throughout the plodding first act of the film, Antwone fights violently with his shipmates until he's required to undergo a three-session psychiatric evaluation under the care of Jerome Davenport (Denzel Washington). Antwone at first refuses to discuss his past during their sessions, but he soon (perhaps too soon for believability) begins to open up. Once his expiation begins, the slow pace of the first act gives way to a tidal wave of suffering victimhood in the second act as we're told the young man's story of abuse, neglect and sorrow at the hands of an uncaring foster mother (Novella Nelson). Telling his story, combined with his budding love for Cheryl (Joy Bryant), leads Antwone to search for his biological parents, which makes up the bulk of act three. On this point, the film deviates somewhat from the real-life drama; according to the production notes, Fisher had left the Navy and was working as a security guard for Sony Pictures Studios in L.A. when he decided to find his biological family. To get time off from the job he'd held for only two months, he told the whole story to his boss, who told it to someone else, who told another person until finally it got through to the right people, and Antwone Fisher the movie was born.