Serenity

Serenity

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Djimon Hounsou, Jason Clarke

Directed by Steven Knight

The Story:
After a stint in Iraq and becoming estranged from his first wife and child, Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey) moves to a small island named Plymouth where he works as a fisherman with his first mate Duke (Djimon Hounsou).  While he's been loosing money, he remains on the prowl for an elusive tuna fish that he's been hunting for awhile, calling it Justice.

As his life continues to spiral downward, he's visited by the alluring and mysterious Karen (Anne Hathaway), who gives Baker an offer he seemingly can't refuse - take her husband Frank (Jason Clarke) - who's been abusing her and her son - on a fishing trip, get him drunk, and push him overboard for the sharks to eat.  Baker wrestles with his decision, and discovers that there's much more to this - and everything - than even he could've imagined.

The Synopsis:
I'm always for someone who brings forward an original idea - something unique, something I haven't seen before.  Steven Knight is well-known for delivering pulse-pounding dramatic pieces (his most well-done was Tom Hardy's "Locke," where you'd never think watching an entire movie of a man in a car could be so tense), and I was hopeful "Serenity" would be another addition to his repertoire: back when I saw the trailer early last year.  It was supposed to be released in 2018, but got moved to the dumping ground that is January, and nine times out of ten that's because everyone has lost faith that the film would be any good - and in this case, it's most assuredly not the one out of ten that's actually good.

The previews make the film look to be a classic noir thriller, and to that end the film sort of delivers.  We get all the broken people - from Matthew McConaughey's war-riddled, single man to Anne Hathaway's alluring, breathless performance and everything in between - but there was always something shallow, something missing.  That's because the film tried to do more than what it should've, attempting to impress by affecting greater importance than is actually possessed - the very definition of "pretentious."

If the story centered around the idea of a broken man struggling with his morals to kill a bad man for money he needs, it would've been more than enough.  Yet Knight decided to add in a twist that fully envelops the story from start to finish, but not in a way that will make you want to re-watch it to catch the missing clues: instead, it's a twist that's so haphazard and simply zany that you can't take anything you see seriously.  This isn't along the lines of "so bad it's good," but it comes pretty close - especially McConaughey, who over-performs in humorous ways (such as yelling at the sky, or his constant naked swimming).  Those moments make the film slightly watchable, but I often found myself watching through my eyelids as I kept nodding off.

Apart from McConaughey, the other performances come off as wooden, hollow, and typecast in a way that makes you think it was written by a first-timer, not someone as seasoned as Knight.  Anne Hathaway floats through her performance as if she's trying to think of how her acting should be like in a noir thriller.  Djimon Hounsou is the voice of reason, while Diane Lane is literally confined to her bedroom the entire time, serving as McConaughey's cougar.  Jason Clarke isn't given much either, apart from being the typical D-bag husband who likes to cheat, steal, and literally beat anyone, and Jeremy Strong plays the mysterious literal man in black who wanders the town with a briefcase that's supposed to make you wonder what he's doing, but you really don't care.

Knight continues his pretentious nature with the names he uses for the film's non-human entities.  The ship is called "Serenity," but nothing about the film is serene.  The big fish that Baker relentlessly hunts is called Justice, which, as Saint Augustine said, "in the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?"  After watching this film, you definitely get the feeling you've just been robbed - of your time, your money, and some parts of your own sanity.

The Summary:
If it was simply a neo-noir thriller, "Serenity" would've worked, but since it tried to be something more intelligent than it deserved to be, the film spiraled quickly down its own drain, resulting in a jumbled mess that's nearly unwatchable.

The Score: D-