Matthew McConaughey stars in SERENITY as Baker Dill, a fisherman living on a quaint little island known as Plymouth Island. He spends his time drinking, taking drunk tourists out on fishing expeditions, and hunting for one particularly elusive fish which he has named Justice.
Dill’s somewhat bleak life is thrown into an uproar once his ex-wife Karen (Anne Hathaway) appears seemingly out of thin air with a highly tempting offer. She’s remarried in her time away from Dill, but has continued to raise his son Patrick. The issue is, her new husband Frank, played by Jason Clarke, is highly abusive towards the both of them. That tempting offer she makes is a simple one: Dill kills her new husband out at sea and, in turn, will receive enough money to remain comfortable for the rest of his life.
McConaughey and Hathaway both do serviceable jobs in their roles, but their chemistry leaves a little something to be desired. There is not much tension brought up by their performances despite the obviously tense situations their characters are in. Jason Clarke has a similar problem in that he fails to properly bring across just how much of a scumbag Frank is. The script and story are the only sources of emotion within this film. Serenity would have potentially made a thrilling novel, but as a film it suffers from the lacking performances from its leads. Dill wrestles with the choice to murder Frank or not whilst also struggling with the separation from his son, and his obsession with catching Justice. This all seems like a fairly standard setup, but around the midway point is when things go completely off-the-rails. For the purposes of avoiding spoilers I cannot say much more.
It is difficult to describe the themes behind this production without somewhat spoiling the MAJOR twist that occurs. Existentialist philosophical themes such as free will, human beings and purpose, even the nature of existence itself, all arise before the end of the narrative. I would sing praises of these ideas on their own whilst not particularly applauding the execution of the film itself.
The aforementioned twist is a bizarre one that throws the entire production for a loop and it is difficult to regain a solid grounding once this reveal occurs. The twist itself was not one that I saw coming until moments before it was revealed so there is some credit due to the filmmakers in keeping it under wraps. However, the movie was actually pretty boring up until this twist occurs.
SERENITY is an absurd film to say the least, absurd in both the regular definition and absurd in the
philosophical sense. The themes of it will undoubtedly come across as foreign and uncomfortable to an unsuspecting audience, but that does not mean that this movie is without merit. I can safely say that my expectations were blown away. Strong ideas with a lackluster execution earns this production a 3/5.
