Serenity (2019)

Review

106min

Genre:      Crime, Drama, Mystery

Director:   Steven Knight

Cast:        Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jason Clarke…more

Writer:     Steven Knight

-Synopsis-

A fishing boat captain’s tranquil existence on a tropical island is shattered by the re-emergence of his ex-wife, whose plea for help and sinister plan to deal with her abusive new husband plunges him into a past long left behind, leaving him questioning everyone and everything around him . . . for good reason.

Long before transitioning into the director’s chair in 2013 with UK criminal underworld thriller ‘Hummingbird’ and 2014’s powerful single-hander human drama ‘Locke’, writer and producer Steven Knight had already established himself as a celebrated screenwriter with gritty crime dramas like ‘Dirty Pretty Things’ and ‘Eastern Promises’, and period pieces like ‘Amazing Grace’ and ‘Allied’—not to mention creating multiple TV shows. Now the British filmmaker fully takes the helm and sails into warmer climes for a deliberately misleading, seductive neo-noir mystery with a major twist—taking a bold head-scratching narrative risk . . . which struggles to pay off.

Matthew McConaughey stars as jaded hard-drinking fisherman ‘Baker Dill’, working the pristine waters around the tropical island of ‘Plymouth’—a small isolated community where everybody knows about everyone’s business—along with his first mate ‘Duke’ (Djimon Hounsou), while obsessing over a monstrous elusive tuna he just can’t catch. But when the past comes back to haunt him, in the form of sophisticated ex-wife ‘Karen Zariakas’ (Anne Hathaway) with a plan to get rid of her abusive gangster husband ‘Frank’ (Jason Clarke), Baker’s life is turned upside down as he’s seduced by temptation and guided by an inexplicable connection—leading him down a dark path towards a fateful decision and a sobering truth.

At first glance ‘Serenity’ may seem like a sexy and stylish, if not particularly inventive crime/mystery, cloaked in atmosphere and with a few thrills—and for two acts it certainly is that, before an almighty turn in the third which changes the entire nature of the film. Yet there are subtle hints towards the coming of the major context-altering twist, through narrative contrivances, visual cues and stylistic choices, but we doubt many will call or predict it, if only due the incredulity that Knight would dare take a classic misdirection route in such outrageous modern style—but take it he does . . . and with gusto.

For a Steven Knight film, ‘Serenity’ is surprisingly ill-conceived, going down a bizarre path by theatrically and haphazardly delivering what should be a sombre meditation on coping with abuse, PTSD, trauma and tragedy, by using unexpected shades of ‘The Matrix’ and ‘The Truman Show’, although he certainly gets some points for trying something different.

Yet despite the unconventional shark-jumping narrative, this is a well-executed stylish modern mystery. Reeling you in and just about keeping you hooked (puns intended) for a good portion of its relatively brisk runtime, adorned by the expertly captured tropical beauty of Mauritius where it’s shot by British cinematographer Jess Hall (Hot Fuzz, Ghost in the Shell), and energised by a slightly overdramatic score by Benjamin Wallfisch (It, Blade Runner 2049) and dynamic camera angles like overheads and dizzying 180°s—all of which fit with and feed the film’s major reveal.

Most of the principal performances here are heightened and border on cliché, particularly when it comes to the two central Oscar-winners who are disappointingly misused. And the fact that their acting choices feed into what is revealed to be the true nature of the film, it still doesn’t prevent it from feeling disingenuous and like slick soap opera fare—and it’s not something that the big plot turn can just wipe from the audience’s mind.

Try as he might to make an unconventional mystery/thriller which delivers a serious message—even peppering the story with references to great literary works and odes to life at sea—‘Serenity’ struggles to excel on any level and  just doesn’t work overall. Even the film’s plot twist and major reveal is poorly handled with compromised effect, coming too soon and relying on a mysterious character plot contrivance (or reverse MacGuffin) which kills the film’s momentum and forces it to restart.

Ultimately Knight’s latest directorial effort amounts to a bold and dark escapist poem about very damaged people, which moderately entertains but completely misses the mark, wrapping up with a plot-explaining conclusion which leaves us questioning its sense of morality and justice—and confused about what it’s trying to say about the very serious nature of its social core.

The Bottom Line…

An unconventional tale of abuse and survival heavily wrapped in crime/mystery clothing, and with a huge plot turn which jumps the shark, ‘Serenity’ is a rare writing miss from fully-fledged filmmaker Steven Knight—proving bold, stylish and moderately entertaining but ill-conceived and ultimately underwhelming, and leaving you scratching your ahead over what you just saw . . . but not in a good way.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Gone Girl (2014)

A big city writer and his wife are forced to move back to his small-town roots to the detriment of their marriage only to find that his wife goes missing and is presumed dead, he is then considered a prime suspect in a crime which becomes a national media frenzy, but things are not as they seem in this gritty and complex mystery/drama.

Directed by David Fincher and starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike and Carrie Coon among others.

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