Movie Review - Serenity (2019)

This isn't a remake of the 2005 film of the same name, which was an adaptation of the TV series Firefly (2002) by Joss Whedon. Surprisingly, this film does end up being a kind of science-fiction tale, although nowhere is that evident on its surface. On its surface, this film is a sun-soaked, sweaty film noir in the vein of Double Indemnity (1944) or The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). Writer-director Steven Knight (The Girl in the Spider's Web and Eastern Promises) uses a lot of the tropes from film noir, but he pulls off a M. Night Shyamalan twist that's more of a Shyamalan twist than the twist in the actual Shyamalan film released the week prior to this, that of Glass.

Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club and Magic Mike) stars as Baker Dill, a fishing boat captain who lives on Plymouth Island, presumably in the Caribbean, but this film was actually shot in Mauritius, the former British colony in the Indian Ocean. He seems to make money from taking tourists or wealthy people out on fishing tours or boat tours. However, business isn't exactly booming, so to make ends meet, he works as a gigolo but only for one wealthy woman who has a home near the marina. He likes to get drunk on rum and he also seems to have issues resulting from being a veteran in the War in Iraq.

Anne Hathaway (Ocean's Eight and Les Misérables) co-stars as Karen Zariakas, the femme fatale or blonde bombshell that are typical to film noirs. She's married to a very wealthy and abusive man whom she wants to kill. She wants Baker Dill to be the one to kill her husband. She's come up with a plan to have Baker take her husband out on the water and drop his body overboard to drown. The reason she goes to Baker to do it is because Baker is the father to her teenage son.

There is a twist that occurs about half-way through the narrative or maybe two-thirds of the way through, but the essential dilemma remains the same. The essential dilemma is whether or not Baker will kill Karen's husband. Unfortunately, most film noirs or erotic thrillers have some kind of current relationship between the man and woman plotting a murder, but this film doesn't really have that. The physical relationship between Baker and Karen doesn't exist.

It's more about them being parents, which makes this somewhat different, but Baker's relationship with his son is so nebulous and disconnected that Baker's motivations never felt clear. Knight does have a very curious scene where McConaughey has a skinny dip with the little boy in question. I don't see what the point is having McConaughey fully nude swimming with the teen who's presumably also nude.

Jason Clarke (First Man and Terminator Genisys) also co-stars as Frank Zariakas, the wealthy and abusive husband to Karen. He's the grossest example of toxic masculinity to come along in a while. He's meant to be the worst person, even one who's open to child prostitution, so that his murder is an obvious one. There's no nuance there, even though Clarke gives a great performance as he always does. Yet, all of that gets downgraded in importance once the twist is revealed.

Spoiler alert!

If you've seen Stranger Than Fiction (2006) or Black Mirror: USS Callister, then it's revealed that this movie is basically doing the same thing as those two titles. Will Ferrell's character in Stranger Than Fiction realizes that he's not real. He learns he's just a character in a book. Cristin Milioti's character in Black Mirror realizes that she's not real. She learns that she's just a character in a video game. It's the same for McConaughey's character here.

Yet, Knight doesn't really do anything with that twist or that concept. Baker Dill drives around the island and mopes. It also doesn't really have any consequence on the plot or narrative, so it's a twist that didn't even seem necessary. It just felt like Knight trying to be clever simply for clever's sake. At least with Shyamalan's twists, the twists have some kind of consequence. Arguably, the twist here doesn't matter at all.

Jeremy Strong (Succession and Masters of Sex) plays Reid Miller, a character created simply to reveal the twist to Baker. His character makes the movie boring because it would have been more interesting if Baker discovered the twist himself. Instead, Reid simply tells him out of the blue.

Rated R for language, sexual content and bloody images.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 46 mins.