REVIEW
Serenity
Stars: 2.0
Starring Matthew McConaughey, Diane Lane, Anne Hathaway, Djimon Hounsou, Jason Clarke and Jeremy Strong
Written and directed by Steven Knight
Rated: 14A for violence, coarse language, and sexual content
Runtime: 107 minutes
Now playing at Cineplex Odeon North Edmonton and Landmark Cinemas St. Albert
Sometimes a movie just works so good on paper that it has to be made. Sometimes those movies get cast with stars so good that it just has to work. Sometimes, oh sometimes, those paper movies with killer casts somehow turn into the strangest of things.
Serenity is such a strange thing and I have a few theories about how it went sideways, then upside down, then backwards, then under the waves.
Perhaps filmmaker Steven Knight wanted to devise a modern version of Body Heat, set on a Caribbean island, with a snarling seafaring Matthew McConaughey taking the place of William Hurt and Kathleen Turner replaced with a doe-eyed and plaintive Anne Hathaway. So far, so good. She’s his ex-wife who didn’t give him much in terms of custody of their son, but now she shows up with $10 million to kill her abusive new husband. Stranger things have happened, right?
It’s either that, or Knight had some kind of killer tax credit in Mauritius so he had to make something. I imagine McConaughey convincing him that he’d be in any movie where he got to be on a boat for three months.
Now, suspension of disbelief is often a prerequisite for a successful film experience, especially one involving the Oscar award-winning actor. I can buy into him having a sexual relationship with Diane Lane’s character in exchange for her helping him out with some cash. I can buy into him being a fishing boat captain who cares more about landing an elusive tuna – one that he calls “Justice” no less – than accepting the fare of paying tourists. I can buy into him cliff diving naked. That one’s a given, except his character calls it “taking a shower.” I can even buy into his character name: Baker Dill. Granted, that was the first laugh of this attempt at a sexy noir thriller.
The problem is that strange things happen on the island, and they’re stranger than Dill’s ex-wife (Karen, played by Hathaway) showing up out of the blue and paying for his drinks with a crisp $100 bill. Yellow lights turn green instead of red. Dill has strange dreams. Visions? Is the guy on the radio talking to you? Who is that guy on the bus staring at you as you drive past? Who, Dill?
Despite the stiff acting, and the plot and dialogue that are as hammy as a dock-ripened cod (and smell almost as good, too), this film attempts something I don’t know if I've ever seen before: a complete 180-degree turn from barely steamy drama to something that makes sense, even if it’s ludicrous. I won’t spoil it because it’s a total jaw-dropper. In doing this, everything changes: the mood, the storyline, even the audience’s perception of how bad the acting is.
It’s beyond being an uneven movie, where pacing and tone don’t quite match from scene to scene. It’s beyond being a stinker, what with McConaughey trying much too hard and Hathaway balancing that out by barely phoning in her performance. It’s possible this might even be a cult classic.
I have a feeling that Metro Cinema will turn it into one of its Turkey Shoot presentations one day. And that, my friends, will be real Justice.
