Written by Tom Moore
While Serenity may have talent that typically rises to the occasion, none of them can save it. The film completely sinks in creating a mysterious thriller. Even when it shows glimmers of hope, it still struggles to be as imaginative and clever as it thinks it’s being.
Now, generally, this is where I would go into slight plot details to describe the movie to you, but honestly, Serenity is so confusing and blatantly metaphorical most of the time that it’s kind of hard to do. It starts as the simple plot of a fisherman, Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey), who is obsessed with catching a legendary tuna fish that only he believes in and can only be found off of Plymouth Island.
Then, all of a sudden, his ex-wife, Karen (Anne Hathaway), finds Dill and asks him to take her abusive husband, Frank (Jason Clarke), out on a fishing trip to kill him so that she and Dill’s son, Patrick (Rafael Sayegh), can escape his abuse. From there, plenty of throw-away characters are introduced, unlikable personalities rise to the surface, and a bunch of strange dialogue becomes the rest of the film.
Right from the start, viewers will instantly realize that most, if not all, of these characters are either completely unlikable or don’t add much to what’s happening. Somewhere between Dill pulling a knife on his patrons and saying to Duke (Djimon Hounsou) that his dead wife is the reason they are having bad luck, viewers will start to not really care to see Dill have an opportunity for redemption. Even the redemption he’s going for isn’t really something audiences can get behind,as he must do something bad to be considered “redeemed.”
The rest of the cast, while filled with prominent actors, doesn’t feel like they are given much to do and just come off as forgettable. Basically, they just feel like they are there to fulfill some kind of trope and add some recognizable faces in the film. Honestly, most of the characters feel like a confused mix of characters from film noir tropes. Karen is the femme fatale, Dill is the protagonist with a haunted past, Reid (Jeremy Strong) is the mysterious government agent, Constance (Diane Lane) is Dill’s mistress who steers him in the right direction, Duke is his partner who also tries to steer him in the right direction, and Frank is basically just “the bad guy.”
Even the dialogue has the snappiness of film noir, sometimes, but it lacks any sort of impact and is mixed with camera work that is both uninspired and odd. When Karen is first introduced, there is this crazy turn shot that is paired with this “whooshing” sound that almost had me burst out laughing with how ridiculous it is. It’s used throughout the film, along with the strange dialogue, and it all leads to a film that had me mentally checking out early and just gave me feelings of confusion.
However, then it happens. A plot twist is introduced that turns the entire film from a film noir to a sci-fi movie with MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD Dill discovering that the world of Plymouth Island is all a part of a video game his son has created. Yep, it gets that ridiculous. To the film’s credit, the plot twist isn’t half bad as it’s decently well-built. When thinking back, there are little hints thrown in through Dill repeating certain scenarios, everyone telling him that he must catch the fish, and why everyone in Plymouth knows everything and feels completely isolated from the rest of the world. I’ll even say that once the film makes this turn, I became a little more interested in what was happening.
Even though the film reels its viewers back for just a moment, it’s never enough to get to the surface of what the film is showing and I still find myself struggling to give it any sort of credit. I feel as if the film feels its shallow characters deserve a decent plot twist and turns to giving Dill a compulsion rather than a motivation. There’s also no moral, lesson, or punishment that comes from Dill giving into his compulsion and the film tries to end on a more darkly pleasant note that just doesn’t add up.
It’s a shame to see a film that contains five Academy Award-nominated talents (three of whom are winners including its writer and director) fail at being anything good. It’s a film that I couldn’t possibly recommend and that’s unfortunate not just because of who is involved, but because the details that influence its third act plot twist could warrant a re-watch. But since I can’t even warrant a initial watch anyway, it’s not really even worth thinking about.
Rating: 3/10
