Movie Review: Serenity

Serenity played out like the idea for the movie came to Director/Producer/Writer, Steven Knight, on a weekend spent binge watching Christopher Nolan’s Inception, M. Night Shyamalan’s movies, Netflix series, Bloodline, and whilst at it; listening to Joshua Kadison’s “Beau’s All Night Radio Love Line” on repeat.

The opening scene featured a wide shot of the blue ocean that tapered off in an aerial shot of a fishing boat named Serenity anchored in the middle of the ocean. Here, we are introduced to Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey), the captain of the boat, and his first mate, Duke (Djimon Honsou). Bill earns a living taking rich tourists out to sea to fish for Tuna but somehow and with threat of violence, he ends up being the one who reels in it whenever his fishing line snags a catch.

When not at sea with his boat, home to Dill and his boat (which he owns partly with his bank) is the island of Plymouth. And when his fishing line comes up empty at the end of the day, Dill moonlights for cash by whoring out himself to the island Milf, Constance (Diane Lane) in sessions of sweaty and sticky sex followed by the obligatory cigarette smoke and pillow talk.

One fine day, a blond femme fatale, Karen (Anne Hathaway), is ushered into the island of Plymouth complete with a telling camera pivot that nudges the audience to watch out for this character (if that was not already apparent to them).

Karen comes bearing a history with Dill, and a proposal that holds out a future for him, all $10million worth of it. She wants him to take her abusive husband out to sea on a fishing trip, and whilst at it; help him rest with the fishes at the bottom of the ocean.

It seems the whole enchilada is pretty much laid out by now, doesn’t it? Well, not quite. Karen’s husband, Frank (Jason Clarke) arrives a day earlier than planned, an initially reluctant Dill asks Duke to save him from temptation but capitulates and snags a hoorah over Frank by speed shagging Karen. Duke, heeding his captain’s call to save him from temptation, pays to have Frank roughened up by a couple of baddies just when Dill decides he’s ready to embrace the temptation of Karen’s proposal.

And then, there is the bespectacled stranger who always seems to arrive just when Dill is taking off, the bar owner who plies Dill with rum, the fishing hardware store lady who plies him with fish hooks (all of whom appear to be more than they appear to be), Constance’s cat and Dill’s elusive Tuna nemesis named Justice both of whom are more metaphor than characters. And not to forget; Dill’s son with Karen who sits behind a computer making cameo appearances in Dill’s haunting visions.

As Baker Dill, McConaughey was in full “alright, alright, aright” brooding mode spewing his lines in a manner that came across more like vignettes for some product advertisement. As Karen, Hathaway (more for lack of bite in the script than for talent) struggled to bring believability to swishing between blond femme fatale and stepford wife-ish iciness. As Constance, Lane (for all the screen time afforded her) pretty much nailed the noir-ish insouciance of an island Milf.

Unlike its title, Serenity’s offering to the audience is anything but serene. It is a film noir in ambience, it dallies into Inception-ish complexity in pretension and attempts an M. Night Shyamalan-ish twist that tries to split hairs rather unsuccessfully, makes no sense (much less one requiring a 6th sense to fathom) and shatters no glass. It was all over the place but it hit nothing. 4.5/10