Serenity, 2019
Directed by Steven Knight.
Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jason Clarke, Jeremy Strong, Djimon Hounsou, and Diane Lane.
SYNOPSIS:
Nothing is as it seems in the small fishing town of Plymouth. Even a dull day of fishing turns out to be something much darker. Boat captain Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey) is torn between two vastly different choices, catching the monster tuna or kill his ex’s new abusive husband. Both options have an outcome you’d never see coming!
If you sat me down before Serenity and told me to guess the ending of the film, it would be nearly impossible to predict the insanity that is this story. While more complicated and confusing movies exist, the out-of-no-where twist in Serenity is indeed a sight to behold as it will take everyone by shock. Before the second act is complete, the film goes from a subtle thriller in vain of The Girl On The Train and somehow ends up like a filler episode in Black Mirror. While that may work for the hit Netflix series, Serenity is not the type of film that can support this type of storytelling.
Let’s jump back to the beginning of the film as there is more to Serenity than just a bizarre plot twist. The story follows Baker Dill – played to drunk bum perfection by Matthew McConaughey – living his life on the small fishing town of Plymouth. He spends his days and nights hunting this massive tuna that feels like his version of Moby Dick. The hunt is beginning to consume his life, basically allowing his determination to hurt his job and relationships. Things get even more complicated for Baker when the mysterious blonde Karen (Anne Hathaway) shows up and makes him a stunning offer to kill her husband for ten million dollars. Karen is his ex, and they share a son. She takes the brunt of the attacks from her abusive husband (Jason Clarke) while her son escapes into his video games, trying to tune out the screams of his mother. Pretty heavy stuff but Baker wants to catch this tuna and live his life as the town’s drunken fisherman.
If the film would’ve stopped right there, it’s a mixture of Moby Dick and Stranger On a Train, a bit strange but it could work with the right talent and direction. But the film doesn’t stop there, and director Steven Knight turns the boat down the most unusual path he could’ve taken. Again, it’s not just the film’s twist that makes Knight’s directing and story feel odd, but the overall filmmaking felt like random choices that didn’t blend. There are sleek, digital video effects for certain camera movements; most of the time they come off jarring and feels a bit “film school” next to the rest of the polished film. Couple with this some very Truman Show-like setup for Baker Dill’s life and you’ll be on edge in all the wrong ways. Not in the way the director intended, as it annoys more than intrigues.
For the most part, Serenity is too confusing and too-polished of a film to be trash, but it isn’t campy enough or smart enough to give off the intended feelings. In the end, I feel just as confused as McConaughey’s character does when he finds out the movie’s twist. Is it time to talk about the soon-to-be-infamous twist? Not to give away too many details, the life of our lead Baker Dill is far more controlled than he ever imagined and the decisions he makes in his simple boating life have way more consequences. The twist also happens so early in the film that it gives you almost TOO much time to put the pieces together. You sit there trying to figure out what the hell just happened, instead of enjoying the remaining runtime of the movie
In a time where Hollywood shovels out generic films, you have to commend Serenity and director Steven Knight for being different, but the script needed another draft, and the movie needed another render. There’s something good deep inside the insanity that is the final product, but the water gets a bit too murky for it to be anything impactful.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
EJ Moreno
