Review: Serenity

Image courtesy of Aviron Pictures.

Only talented people could have made a film as ridiculous as "Serenity." The picture has gorgeous cinematography by Jess Hall and was written and directed by Steven Knight, who has made at least one pretty solid movie ("Locke") and written the screenplays for others that vary from good ("Dirty Pretty Things") to great ("Eastern Promises"). The film's cast includes Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jason Clarke, Djimon Hounsou and Diane Lane.

And yet, "Serenity" is not very good, often borderline absurd. The first half of the film is the more watchable of the two. As the picture opens, we meet Baker Dill (McConaughey), who leads fishing trips on a tropical island known as Plymouth, where something appears to be slightly off.

In one of the film's more bizarre subplots, Dill is obsessed with catching a massive tuna that constantly eludes him. The film's first scene involves him attempting to catch the fish and then threatening at knifepoint some tourist who is paying him for a fishing expedition when the man gets upset that he's not being given the chance to catch the fish. Duke (Hounsou), Dill's assistant, spends much of the film shaking his head at his partner's antics, that is, when he's not delivering cryptic bon mots about how to live his life and so forth.

Enter Karen Zariakis (Hathaway), a femme fatale who happens to be Dill's ex-wife and the mother of his son, whom we see in fleeting glimpses playing some sort of oddball video game that might have something to do with the film's overall plot. Karen wants Dill to lure her abusive husband (Clarke, hamming it up as a sleazeball rich guy) out for a fishing expedition and then dump him in the water for the sharks to feed on.

About halfway through the picture, a traveling salesman - who is constantly attempting and failing to get Dill's attention - corners Dill and explains the film's major plot twist, which is a nonsensical jaw-dropper of major proportions. After this, it's hard to take the movie's second half very seriously, since the stakes have been lowered.

The film's first half is moderately enjoyable in a lurid film noir sort of manor. McConaughey spends much of the time semi-clothed, whether he's getting it on with Lane's character (who seemingly only exists for this purpose or to look out the window for her missing cat) or jumping nude off a cliff and into the ocean, where the camera lingers on him in various stages of undress for lengthy periods of time. The picture is paced like a thriller, which manages to hold one's interest for about 45 minutes.

But once the plot twist kicks in, the film really begins to sink - and fast. Knight is a talented screenwriter of gritty films that are typically set in London and involve both crime and a sense of realism. I'm not sure what prompted him to write and direct this film, which is pretty silly and fantastical in a manner that is neither particularly convincing or interesting. "Serenity" might be good for a laugh, unintended or not, but it's otherwise not one to seek out.