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“ Serenity ” is terrible and insane, and will surely end up being one of the worst films of 2019. But it’s also such a wildly ambitious roller coaster ride that it must be experienced, preferably with friends, to laugh together at its cheesy dialogue, over-the-top performances and multiple, major plot twists.

So I guess what I’m saying is, see it …?

Writer/director Steven Knight , whose 2014 Tom Hardy drama “ Locke ” is a compact marvel of precision and suspense, once again tries to dazzle us with narrative daring. But what ends up happening is that he partially pulls the rug out from underneath us about halfway through, then yanks the whole thing out by the end, then waves the rug around in the air as if to joyfully shout: “Ha! This is the rug you were standing on! See? It’s not underneath you anymore!” Giant twists like the ones that ultimately come to define “Serenity” often can be thrilling, and can provide some enjoyment in trying to go back in your mind and search for clues. What Knight does as his game becomes clearer, however, only raises more questions than he answers – and some of those questions are downright icky.

It all starts out as a seemingly straightforward neo-noir, full of damaged characters and desperate circumstances. Matthew McConaughey chews up the sunny scenery as the improbably named Baker Dill, a chain-smoking, rum-swilling Iraq war veteran who spends his days as the captain of a fishing boat for hire on the idyllic, tropical island of Plymouth. Dill is obsessed with an elusive, behemoth tuna he’s nicknamed Justice (in a not-so-subtle bit of symbolism), a quest so famous, it’s a constant source of conversation wherever he goes. Djimon Hounsou is his dutiful and pious first mate, Duke, a black character who’s such a pure voice of reason and so willing to sacrifice his own well being for Dill’s greater good that he borders on magical.

One day, a chic blonde from Dill’s past comes sauntering through the door of the island’s only bar: Anne Hathaway ’s Karen, his ex and the mother of the couple’s teenage son, from whom Dill has become estranged. Karen is now miserably married to the man she left Dill for: Jason Clarke ’s Frank Zariakas, a monstrous man of shadowy wealth who abuses her verbally and physically. As film noir femme fatales tend to do, Karen has tracked Dill down to offer him an unsavory proposition: Take Frank out on the boat, pretend it’s a fishing trip, ply him with alcohol and push him overboard to let the sharks devour him. If he does it, she’ll pay him $10 million.

Now, at this point (or even long beforehand) you’re probably wondering to yourself: Is Knight serious? What was he thinking making a movie that’s smothered in a pulpy tone and brimming with clichéd types? It’s all so arch: Does he mean it, or is this some sort of parody? We haven’t even gotten to Diane Lane ’s character, the beautiful older woman who lies about her bungalow all day in silky robes, looking through the slats in the shutters, waiting for Dill to stop by so she can pay him for a roll in the hay (with some truly cringeworthy post-coital repartee). She literally leaves this room once – and that’s to go to Dill’s house. The film’s treatment of its female characters is not exactly woke.

Watching “Serenity” reminded me a bit of the way I felt while watching “Tully” – which is a way better film on every level, for the record. But similarly, it made me wonder: Did Diablo Cody mean to write a manic pixie dream girl character with this perky nanny? Certainly she knows better than that. Or is some other hidden undercurrent at work here? With “Tully,” there was indeed a twist that changed everything we’d seen, but it was clever and ultimately poignant. We can’t say the same for “Serenity.” And that’s about all we should say about that.

Similar to “ Collateral Beauty ” and “ The Book of Henry ” – recent dramas with esteemed casts that went off the rails in enjoyably awful ways – “Serenity” is the kind of bonkers movie that truly must be seen to be believed, if not for its misguided storytelling aspirations then at least for its preponderance of naked McConaughey . (Dill has a propensity for diving nude off the cliff in front of his ramshackle home and calling it a shower. He also shouts at the sky a lot, which is fun.) As for Knight, “Serenity” remains his Big Symbolic Tuna – a wily beast of mythical proportions that remains tantalizingly out of reach.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Serenity (2019)

Rated R for language throughout, sexual content, and some bloody images.

106 minutes

Matthew McConaughey as Baker Dill

Anne Hathaway as Karen

Diane Lane as Constance

Jeremy Strong as Reid Miller

Jason Clarke as Frank Zakarias

Djimon Hounsou as Duke

Robert Hobbs as Ape

Kenneth Fok as Lionel

Rafael Sayegh as Patrick

Steven Knight

Director of Photography

Laura Jennings

Original Music Composer

Benjamin Wallfisch

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Cast & crew
User reviews

Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway in Serenity (2019)

A fishing boat captain juggles facing his mysterious past and finding himself ensnared in a reality where nothing is what it seems. A fishing boat captain juggles facing his mysterious past and finding himself ensnared in a reality where nothing is what it seems. A fishing boat captain juggles facing his mysterious past and finding himself ensnared in a reality where nothing is what it seems.

Steven Knight
Matthew McConaughey
Anne Hathaway
669 User reviews
153 Critic reviews
37 Metascore
3 wins & 5 nominations

Karen Zariakas

Frank Zariakas

Reid Miller

Plymouth DJ
Man at the Bar
(uncredited)
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

Trivia The movie was filmed in Mauritius.
Goofs The picture of Baker in a Marine Corps uniform shows him with his awards/ribbons on the incorrect side of his chest. Ribbons are worn on the left.

Duke : Pity is worse than a fist to the face.

Connections Featured in Late Night with Seth Meyers: Anne Hathaway/Sherrod Brown/Michaela Coel/Venzella Joy (2019)
Soundtracks Accordion Boogie Written by Clifton Chenier Published by BMG Bumblebee (BMI) on behalf of Tradition Music Co. (BMI) All rights administered by BMG Rights Management (US) LLC Courtesy of Smithsonian Folkway Recordings

User reviews 669

SnoopyStyle
Nov 6, 2020
How long is Serenity? Powered by Alexa
January 25, 2019 (United States)
United Kingdom
United States
Trò Chơi Tình Ái
Blue Budgie Films Limited
Global Road Entertainment
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$25,000,000 (estimated)
Jan 27, 2019
$14,454,622

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 46 minutes

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Serenity Reviews

You don't need to be a fan, or have watched the show, or even like the genre to appreciate one of the best science-fiction movies of the 21st century.

Full Review | Jun 9, 2022

Sadly, it seems certain that Whedon listened too carefully to the suits at Fox who told him to pump up the action.

Full Review | Feb 28, 2020

Fans are sure to be pleased, but if writer/director Josh Whedon is looking to develop a new fan base, Serenity isn't the way to do it.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Nov 19, 2019

Boasting an intriguing plotline, breakneck pacing, characters with depth and a good deal of knowing humor alongside some gobsmacking special effects, Serenity is the true successor to [Star Wars].

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 27, 2019

Thank you, [Joss], for creating this world, for seeing it through, and for giving us die-hard fans the closure we so desperately needed. You just earned yourself a lifetime pass from geeks everywhere.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Oct 25, 2018

A lovely example of TV sci-fi doing what it does best, and with an amount of money that no TV sci-fi ever had at its disposal.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 7, 2017

. . .it's got plenty of sci-fi soul food including tough-talking space cowboys with marshmallow hearts, blistering boobie babes, sassy sidekicks and blood thirsty savages.

Full Review | Aug 24, 2017

Whedon's years in TV have helped him hone a clean, efficient, entertaining style grounded in character, camaraderie and his trademark dialogue...

Full Review | Feb 12, 2016

After suffering through a summer crammed with TV shows being remade into movies, it's refreshing to see a movie based on a TV show that is so entertaining that it actually makes you want to go and see the show of which the movie was created.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 10, 2012

New viewers will be a little bit lost, and old fans won't get quite everything they wanted, but there's enough going on in Serenity and it's all so much fun that it doesn't matter.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 30, 2011

In the end you are left with the feeling that Whedon works better on television than in the cinema.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 18, 2008

Hardcore fans will undoubtedly be satisfied but its unlikely this will spread much beyond that audience, and even they will find it lacks that human spark and freshness that made the series distinctive and appealing.

Full Review | Jan 15, 2008

For what it is -- viewed as filmmaking in and of itself -- "Serenity" is tense and smoothly put together.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Sep 23, 2007

A magnificent closer to the series, and Whedon shows how much love he has for his fans by giving us a quality finisher...

Full Review | Jul 10, 2007

Joss Whedon makes a rousing feature-directing debut, exploiting the cult status of his short-lived series Firefly to continue it on the big screen.

Full Review | Jun 6, 2007

Firefly finally has the triumphant finale fans longed for: the excitingly tense, often surprising and even more frequently comical Serenity. Fans will rejoice.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 31, 2006

The settings and tone are hyper-real, yet the human behaviour is grounded and credible, the moral conflicts complex and involving. Shiny, intelligent fun.

Full Review | Jun 24, 2006

In the context of an action cinema driven by false hope, misogyny and sadism, Serenity is an inspiring respite.

Full Review | May 27, 2006

Go out and see Joss Whedon's witty whizbang of an action movie, or we will kill a kitten.

Full Review | May 12, 2006

The movie is a sci-fi buccaneer swashbuckler; Whedon hits all the obligatory space-opera notes, and he does it with a degree of verbal wit and agile pacing that could teach George Lucas a thing or two.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 12, 2006

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‘Serenity’ Review: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and One Very Bad Mess

Share full article

By Wesley Morris

Jan. 24, 2019

I’m no actor, but I’d like to think if a script ever came my way with lines like, “Wouldn’t it be funny if nobody knows anything?,” and “Just how many years have I been here, Jack?,” and “How dare Old Joe feed my cat,” I’d know that the movie would probably open in the middle of January when the studios leave their garbage on the curb. But I’m just me, so it’s possible that Matthew McConaughey was sent the pages for “Serenity” and saw something more fit for April or May, when the movies don’t need quite as much cologne.

It’s also possible that he read the script — with its tale of a chain-smoking, heavy-drinking, sweat-soaked fishing boat captain, his ex, her battering new husband and the elusive tropical tuna that haunts the captain’s every waking hour — and recalled the last time he was on the high seas then said aloud, “I miss ‘Fool’s Gold .’” More than half the reason I went to see this movie is because I miss “Fool’s Gold,” too. But that movie is 11 years old. And the days of low-stakes thingamabobs with some stars and even a little bit of writing are gone.

Instead of a caper with Kate Hudson, McConaughey has got a mess written and directed by Steven Knight. The captain — his captain, Baker Dill — has unsexy sex with Diane Lane’s character. He tries to catch that fish alongside his dutiful first mate (Djimon Hounsou). He puts up with the nerdy, White Rabbity stranger (Jeremy Strong) chasing after him and managing the return of Karen, this ex of his and mother of his son. She’s played by Anne Hathaway , as a blonde, and her arrival at the local bar appears to be an event so momentous that the camera has to sprint-swoop around her to gawk. I laughed when it did. Baker Dill is a lousy character name. But that camera pivot is lousier.

Karen asks Captain Dill to take her mean spouse (Jason Clarke) for a boat ride but doesn’t ask to bring him back. But maybe Dill would rather catch that fish than commit murder. So Karen keeps alternating between femme fatale and mysterious detective-novel damsel until he consents.

For reasons known only to Knight, “Serenity” couldn’t just be a film noir. He’s laid some kind of science-fiction nonsense atop it because, apparently, the movie needed a ply of trashy pretension to echo Adrian Lyne’s thriller “Jacob’s Ladder” and complement the luxe incoherence of McConaughey’s Lincoln ads . There are cutaways to Baker and Karen’s son feverishly typing code while, offscreen, his stepdad can be heard slapping Karen around. (It’s possible that Baker can hear his son — telepathically!) The more we learn about that half of things the less sense the rest of the movie makes. That includes a big reveal that’s like the worst of Christopher Nolan, M. Night Shyamalan and the condolence-card section at Walgreens.

Serenity Rated R for violence — against wives, fish and paying audiences — and some dull sex. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes.

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Serenity Is Bad — But There’s Some Method to Its Badness

Note to Readers: This review contains no spoilers, to the point that it might seem unduly vague. I would encourage everyone to read no one but me as some of the other reviews have given everything — and I mean fucking everything — away.

The fishing noir Serenity is a fine example of a Ceiling-Watch movie. It has good actors — in this case, Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Diane Lane, and Djimon Hounsou — and it’s not reliably terrible (sometimes it’s okay), but you get embarrassed for the people involved and need short breaks, so you lean your head back and gaze at the ceiling. Ceilings of theaters can be interesting, especially old ones with intricate patterns. Even the new ones can hold your attention. The ceiling of the recently redesigned screening room where I saw Serenity was pocked with speakers, which, with the help of more on the side, made for killer sound. There are parts in Serenity when something vaguely supernatural happens and the tinkly triangles and shimmery harps came through nicely. I knew why because I had been ceiling-watching.

I’m mocking Serenity , but I feel a great deal of affection for it, because its writer and director, Steven Knight, set himself a very weird task and held firm. As he demonstrated in his one-man, one-set, one-camera-angle drama Locke , he’s drawn to men trapped (or locked ) inside their own heads, with settings serving as metaphors for human isolation. Reaching out in despair into the darkness, these men become real in ways they’d never been before.

Serenity ’s locked-in protagonist is McConaughey’s Baker Dill, who’s so obsessed with catching a humongous tuna (which he alternately calls “the Beast” and “Justice”) that all the folks on his small fishing island avidly follow his day-to-day attempts. Word of his adventures travels via his first mate, Duke (Hounsou), as well as Constance (Diane Lane), who lives in view of the pier and periodically hands over money to receive Dill’s pickle. McConaughey sheds his clothes a lot, and even allowing for body doubles he cuts a fine figure of a man, with well-marbled glutes, but the idea of Diane Lane having to pay for sex tells you something in this universe ain’t right.

Which brings me to the supernatural aspects of Serenity . The first image is of a pair of eyes that snaps open, after which the camera plunges into them to discover a monster of a fish, then rises above the water and hurtles towards a boat called — wait for it — “Serenity.” The title tells you that this boat is a refuge of sorts, but a refuge from what? From whom?

Dill is living under an assumed name, having survived a tour of Iraq. But he left something behind on the mainland — something that nags at him. The noir plot proper kicks in with the arrival of Karen, played by Hathaway with a strategically placed beauty-spot atop her left cheekbone. It turns out that after Dill came back from Iraq and couldn’t settle down, she left him for a very rich, very violent man named Frank Zariakas (Jason Clarke), whom she wants Frank to take tuna-fishing and pitch into the drink. It’s not just for her sake but the safety of her and Dill’s teenage son, Patrick (Rafael Sayegh), with whom Dill has an odd, inexplicable psychic link. Perhaps the reason for that link will come from the skinny little fellow in the suit (Jeremy Strong) who follows Dill around, missing him by seconds and always puzzled by those misses (and those seconds).

You’ve got Jaws , you’ve got Double Indemnity , you’ve maybe got The Shining — what you don’t have is anything with an ounce of realism. The question is whether Knight is as clunky a writer and director as he seems or whether there is a method to his badness. To say much more would be criminal, to say much less would mean not doing my job — so I’ll say that there is, indeed, method, but not all the movie’s badness can be shrugged off. There’s deft clunkiness and clunky clunkiness.

Clunking the least deftly are the scenes between McConaughey and Hathaway — major ceiling-watch scenes. Hathaway is a smart actress and comedian but she’s lost here, plainly unable to stand the thought of playing an object and unable to find a middle ground between a noir femme and a real person. No wonder: There’s no there, there — the writing isn’t rich enough. Also, actors who don’t find a rhythm with McConaughey get left high and dry, since he makes so little effort to synch up with anyone else. McConaughey is best when he’s gnawing on the scenery by himself, either perched over the island’s lone bar while the movie-ish supporting players look on, concerned about Dill’s rum consumption, or staring into the sky, longing for his son or questioning his place in the cosmos. Or maybe he’s counting the speakers on the ceiling.

Serenity isn’t just meant to surprise you — which it will — but to give you an emotional wallop — which it may or may not. It didn’t work for me: I was too hung up on the fanciness (and, in truth, ridiculousness) of the final half-hour to feel everything Knight wanted me to feel. But it’s possible that audiences will warm to such a wacky gimmick. They do, from time to time. Just ask [name redacted] or [name redacted].

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Serenity (2019) Review

01 Mar 2019

Serenity (2019)

Written and directed by Steven Knight (the talent behind Cronenberg ’s Eastern Promises screenplay and the writer-director of Locke ), Serenity is a film of two equally disappointing halves. The first looks to revamp the tropical crime thriller, a heady cocktail of sun, sex, subterfuge and sailing, in a modern milieu. The second takes the premise into a whole different unforeseen zone of madness while still playing on familiar noir themes of fate and destiny. Either way, the film misfires on practically all levels, wasting an A-list cast, some intriguing ideas and big ambition on a story that is deeply flawed, and over-sincere but under-cooked.

Set on the the sleepy sun-kissed island of Plymouth Island, the action centres on McConaughey ’s Baker Dill, the moniker joining Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation ’s Vilmer Slaughter and Contact ’s Palmer Joss in The Most Ridiculous McConaughey Character Name stakes. Dill is an Iraq vet turned skipper of small fishing boat The Serenity and has a Captain A-hab/Moby Dick relationship with tuna. He also has an on/off thing with Constance ( Diane Lane ), and his course seems pretty set until his ex-wife and mother of his son, Karen ( Hathaway , all blonde hair, smoky eyes and cigarette holding-as-acting) turns up with a proposition: take her violent multi-millionaire husband Frank ( Clarke ) on a fishing trip, get him sozzled and toss him to the sharks for $10 million and the prospect of getting back with her.

The writing is tin-eared and the performances feel bizarrely off.

So far, so Double Indemnity in espadrilles. But there are strange quirks. Dill is haunted by memories of his dead son and is chased around by a mysterious fishing equipment salesman (Jeremy Strong). What is weirder, given the talent involved, is the tone; the writing is tin-eared and the performances from such such stellar talents as McConaughey, Hathaway, Clarke and Djimon Hounsou (as Dill’s loyal first mate) feel bizarrely off, stylised without riffing on a style. Yet slowly, the film begins to reveal its true colours in a Shyamalan/Nolan-esque twist that reframes the story but neither redeems the ‘bad’ quality of the first half or manages to answer all the questions raised by the sharp turn. There are interesting ideas around the role of storytelling and the nature of free will, but Serenity never manages to engage or address them.

If you are being kind, the pretty, sun-drenched Mauritius locations might send you running to Trivago and Knight at least goes for broke, trying something bold and adventurous rather than playing it safe. But the end result has the unique quality of being simultaneously silly yet sombre, a waste of on-screen and behind-the-scenes talent that perhaps raises the biggest question of all: how did so many great people come together to make this drivel?

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DVD & Streaming
Drama , Mystery/Suspense

Content Caution

In Theaters

January 25, 2019
Matthew McConaughey as Baker Dill; Anne Hathaway as Karen; Diane Lane as Constance; Djmon Hounsou as Duke; Jason Clarke as Frank; Jeremy Strong as Reid Miller; Garion Dowds as Samson; Rafael Sayegh as Patrick

Home Release Date

April 30, 2019
David Knight

Distributor

Aviron Pictures

Movie Review

Everybody knows everything on Plymouth Island.

Except for Baker Dill.

A war veteran and current recluse on the lazy, secluded island, Baker has hidden himself away—away from his past, his responsibilities and, sometimes, his own thoughts.

He lives his predictable days taking his boat—good ‘ole Serenity—out on the ocean. Occasionally, it’s with tourists to catch a prized fish or two and reel in the cash. But most times, Baker simply hunts a behemoth of a fish, one he’s named Justice . This hunt, this compulsive desire, consumes his every waking moment, enabling him to disconnect from his former life.

But just when he starts to think he’s making some emotional progress, his stunning ex-wife, Karen, shows up out of the deep blue. And not for a casual visit. No, Karen has a proposition: She’ll give Baker $10 million in cash if he’ll simply toss her abusive husband overboard as food for the sharks.

It’s a tempting offer.

Now, Baker Dill must decide between Justice or Serenity, between right and wrong—on an island where the lines of morality are often blurred, and nothing is as it seems.

Positive Elements

Baker Dill is a troubled man who wrestles with the definitions of good and evil. He asks friends to help him make the right choices (even when he doesn’t do so), and he tries to create a peaceful life, even after a betrayal. He is protective of friends (albeit in some unconventional ways). And he truly loves his son, whom he wishes to protect (even though he hasn’t seen his boy in years).

A young teen is likewise fiercely protective of his mother and is praised by teachers who believe him to be brilliant.

Questions of morality increasingly come into play as Baker ponders the meaning of justice, love and faithfulness, and as he tries to draw a line between right and wrong.

Spiritual Elements

Duke, Baker’s fishing partner, is a man of faith. He is seen in church, wears a cross and gives advice to Baker. After Baker asks Duke to “deliver” him from temptation, Duke tries to tell Baker the difference between good and evil, heaven and hell. The man also tells Baker that “there is a God,” saying that making the right choices will reflect the fact that he is a good man. Later on, though, Duke suggests that Baker go and see “an Indian woman” who specializes in adjusting peoples’ luck.

Some other spiritual themes are lightly touched upon throughout the film, such as creation, purpose and the meaning of existence. A statue of an island god, meant to give luck, is seen in various scenes.

Sexual Content

There are several graphic sex scenes throughout the film. Baker has sex with one woman frequently. She supplies him with money for fishing gear in exchange for sex. (She jokingly calls Baker a “hooker.”) These scenes involve explicit movements and sounds. His bare backside is seen multiple times, and we see quite a bit of her skin, too (though technically avoiding nudity in her case). Baker also has rough sex with another woman (she’s in lingerie and he is seen almost completely naked) whom he’s using for revenge.

Frank, Karen’s husband, is an abusive man who takes pleasure in sexually abusing his wife. Karen is forced to take her robe off (we see her unclothed from the rear) as her husband inspects her body, looking for a reason to harm her. In another scene, Karen’s bare back reveals the bloody marks he’s left.

Baker skinny-dips. (We see his rear and a shot of him from the side, underwater.) A married man crudely says that he wants to have sex with poor, “little girls” at a cheap price. Couples kiss. A man makes a crude comment about oral sex and smacks his wife’s rear. A wife leaves her husband for another man. A woman recounts a memory of the first time she had sex when she was “finally old enough.” A woman is forced to call her husband “daddy” and to use her weak physical state to arouse him.

Violent Content

Karen is terrified of her abusive husband, Frank. She tells Baker that he has beaten her (and occasionally their son) for the past 10 years of their marriage, and that he will kill her if she tries to escape. In one scene, we see her husband take off his belt as he prepares to flay her with it. (Local residents say she was beaten by his hands and belt for more than an hour, all without making a sound.)

Other scenes include an abusive man screaming at his wife, violently threatening her life, throwing objects and physically beating her. (All of this is heard by a young teen in his bedroom, where he’s hidden away.) Later, we hear that a 13-year-old boy is arrested for murder after stabbing his stepfather in the chest.

A man calls for a hit on another man, who is eventually found lying in his bathroom, covered in blood. Blood covers multiple surfaces in his hotel room, and it’s visible on his broken hand and severely beaten face, too.

Someone says that there’s enough rope “to hang yourself.” Multiple death threats are made, and a few men are attacked with a knife. We see a young boy with a black eye. A man is pushed up against a wall and threatened. Another character talks about what he saw as a soldier, including dismembered bodies. Someone gets dragged into the ocean by his fishing rod (and we see bloody bait sprinkled into the water beforehand to attract sharks).

Crude or Profane Language

God’s name is misused four times, some of which are paried with “d–n.” Jesus’ name is misused three times. The f-word is heard nearly 80 times and the s-word twice. “D–n” is heard more than 10 times, and other profanity includes multiple uses of “a–hole,” “a–,” “b–tard,” “b–ch” and “h—.”

A teenage boy is harshly demeaned as a “pr–k” and a “retard.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Men smoke cigarettes. Characters drink hard liquor, beer and champagne, sometimes to excess. Baker is a well-known local alcoholic. We see him drinking rum and taking multiple shots.

Other Negative Elements

Baker’s obsessive personality causes him to disconnect from the world. He is often lost in his head, confused by his own reality and thrown off by unexpected change. Baker makes a harsh comment about a woman’s death, and he later says that he never recovered mentally after serving in a war.

Who is the creator of reality? Is it us? And how much gray exists in a world of black and white?

This noir thriller addresses these questions and others through the life of Baker Dill and his haunting past. It’s a film that asks viewers to grapple with right and wrong, with good and evil.

But much of that duality is also graphically displayed here. Abuse in many forms takes center stage, both as a propellant and a warning. Sex, power and revenge permeate the plot. Harsh language is heard throughout, and problematic moral messages emerge as the story unfolds.

Baker Dill says, “Sometimes we do bad things for good reasons.” But despite the seemingly deep questions this film tries to ask, viewers will be hard-pressed to find much that’s redemptive as they wade through this thriller’s ocean of problematic content.

Kristin Smith

Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).

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‘serenity’: film review.

Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway star in 'Serenity,' a Florida-set romantic thriller from Steven Knight ('Locke').

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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An attempt at a contemporary tropical noir, Serenity leaves its talented cast stranded on the beach. Too self-consciously tricky and never in the least convincing, this misfire from the sometimes inspired writer-director Steven Knight ( Locke ; the script for Eastern Promises ) knowingly brandishes 1940s-style murder-melodrama and femme fatale tropes in a steamy setting populated by louche characters. But if the point is that life is but a game, we’ve heard that one before, and better told.

When it comes to playing that game, Baker Dill ( Matthew McConaughey ) hasn’t figured out the rules yet, much less come up with a way to win. Well into middle age, Dill skippers the Serenity, a tourist fishing boat out of sleepy Plymouth Island off the Florida coast (the film, thanks to local financing, was entirely shot in Mauritius in the Indian Ocean). On this fine day, Dill gets his hook into a huge fish he’s tried to reel in three times before, but once again it gets away, giving the man something to obsess about until next they meet.

Release date: Jan 25, 2019

Dill has a nice, relaxed thing going with local beauty Constance (Diane Lane) until a vision from out of the past materializes in the comely form of Karen ( Anne Hathaway ), Dill’s ex-wife and mother of their teen son, Patrick. Karen’s been married for some time to gazillionaire Frank ( Jason Clarke ), who huffs and puffs and scowls around the edges of the story, little aware that Karen has come to offer Dill $10 million to kill him.

It’s a classic noir murder mystery setup: a down-on-his-luck schmuck lured by a gorgeous lost love into a once-in-a-lifetime payday that will put him on easy street forever. And maybe he’ll get Karen back in the bargain. But in the meantime, Knight has about an hour of screen time to kill before getting to the big deed, and he fills it none too engagingly or convincingly. Dill’s loyal first mate, Duke (Djimon Hounsou), is around and then he’s not; weird salesman Reid Miller (Jeremy Strong) hovers about, announcing that “Plymouth Island is a game”; and Dill alternately commits to getting into killer shape and becoming totally plastered, both activities serving as tedious filler without any dramatic oomph behind it.

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Serenity review: mcconaughey's noir drama goes off the deep end.

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Denzel washington's most underrated movie is a $46 million flop from 26 years ago, what happened to noriko in godzilla minus one, though its big ideas don't work, serenity's narrative miscalculations result in some pretty entertaining - if completely unintentional - comedy..

Even in a January full of perplexing films, the new Matthew McConaughey vehicle Serenity takes the prize for the most confounding movie of the month. The film's trailers clearly suggest there's more to Steven Knight's noir drama than meets the eye, but it turns out they've only grazed the surface when it comes to the movie's third act twists. Before then, however, there's a lot about Serenity that doesn't make sense, and the big reveals do little to change that. If anything, the film's secrets elevate what would've otherwise been a clumsy exercise in genre storytelling into what will probably go down as one of 2019's most ludicrous offerings. Though its big ideas don't work, Serenity 's narrative miscalculations result in some pretty entertaining - if completely unintentional - comedy.

McConaughey stars in Serenity as Baker Dill, a hard-drinking, heavy-smoking, fishing boat captain who lives on the remote tropical island of Plymouth and is obsessed with catching a giant tuna fish he not-so-subtly calls "Justice", even if it comes at the expense of his small-time business and religious crew-mate Duke (Djimon Hounsou). When he's not taking drunk customers out to sea or fishing to make a buck, Baker gets by with a little help from Constance (Diane Lane), a local who's got cash to burn and is more than willing to fund Baker's unruly lifestyle... so long as he continues sleeping with her on the side, that is.

Everything changes one night when Baker is approached at a local bar by Karen Zariakas (Anne Hathaway), a woman who knows his real name is John - because they were high school sweethearts who got married and eventually divorced, some ten years earlier. Karen, as it turns out, wants Baker to kill her abusive new husband Frank (Jason Clarke) by taking him out to sea and leaving him to drown, for a hefty payment of no less than $10 million. As Baker struggles to decide whether to accept her offer or not, he also begins to realize that Plymouth, his new life, and the world around him may not be what they appear.

As mentioned, there's something off about Serenity well before the third act gets underway. Knight's script is full of laughably hard-boiled dialogue and, in terms of his direction, the filmmaker delivers some noticeably jarring shifts in mood and style, sometimes within the span of a single scene. One moment, the movie is as visually gruff and unrefined as its grumbling protagonist, the next it's as slickly polished as a music video. This also results in some pretty abrupt changes in tone, especially when Serenity switches gears from being a pulpy neo-noir to trying to tackle serious subject matter (like domestic abuse) in a more realistic and grounded fashion. The film's twists don't really explain these discrepancies so much as excuse them, and in doing so fail to give audiences much reason to reconsider everything they've seen up to that point.

By the time the film enters its second half, it becomes apparent that Serenity 's less interested in exploring the noir tropes it's drawing from and more invested in examining ideas about morality, the universe, and the very nature of human existence. This is also the portion of the movie where McConaughey begins to wax philosophical about himself and the lives of those around him, as though he's back playing Rust Cohle on True Detective . However, whereas the actor's "McConaughlogues" in that show either shed light on his character or tied into the larger themes of its narrative, his speeches here tend to feel aimless. Even after the movie reveals what's really going on, it never becomes clear what the actual point of its story is. Meanwhile, the obvious metaphors in Knight's script become (if anything) even more ham-fisted than before.

In a film this bizarre, it's appropriate that McConaughey delivers one of his weirder performances to date. The actor feels a bit out of his element in the early-going, but hits his stride when Baker transitions from being a grouchy, sweaty mess to seeing his world clearly for the first time and finally realizing the truth about his new life. What makes McConaughey's performance odd is that he plays the character's entire arc with a straight face, even when he's saddled with some truly goofy lines of dialogue. Hathaway seems a bit more self-aware in her role as Serenity 's femme fatale (as does Lane in her turn as an older temptress), but if anything that just highlights how regressive the film is when it comes to its portrayal of women. Similarly, Clarke makes for a pretty cartoonishly evil antagonist - right down to his gold-laced shoes and belt - and Hounsou's devout character mostly functions as Baker's conscience, making him little more than a two-dimensional stereotype.

Again, Serenity attempts to reframe these noir archetypes with its plot twists, but mostly ends up making them feel even sillier than before. Still, despite its many shortcomings, there's some respectable craftsmanship on display here. Cinematographer Jess Hall does a nice job photographing the film's real-world backdrop (the island nation of Mauritius) and draws from a rich color palate to bring the island's sunny days, rainy nights, and deep blue sea to life. Benjamin Wallfisch's atmospheric score further serves to set the mood throughout the film and gives it much of its ominously enigmatic flavor. The only real problem with the movie, stylistically speaking, is that its editing within scenes tends to feel disjointed, as though they were chopped up and cobbled back together to be as short as possible.

Knight has made high-concept movies that work before (see Locke ), but in this case his big ideas simply got away from him. This also explains why Serenity went through a couple of release date changes before its distributor decided to dump it in January, where it would have the best chance of success competing against similarly campy, messy, and/or just plain ridiculous movies at the box office. Those who want to see the film simply to find out how wacky it really is are safe to wait until Serenity his the home video market in the not-too-distant future - and who knows, they may even enjoy it without a hint of irony. As for everyone else: don't worry, there are brighter days ahead, now that February's right around the corner.

Serenity is now playing in U.S. theaters nationwide. It is 106 minutes long and is rated R for language throughout, sexual content, and some bloody images.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

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Common sense media reviewers.

Modern-day film noir with a twist goes hopelessly adrift.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Justifies murder if committed for a good reason. A

None of the main characters seem to have any kind

A man is said to be abusing his wife. He stands ne

Main character has sex with two women. His naked b

Frequent language includes uses of "f--k," "f---in

Mention of Facebook.

Characters are frequently shown drinking (mostly b

Positive Messages

Justifies murder if committed for a good reason. A young boy is involved with dark, strange deeds, with no foreseeable consequences.

Positive Role Models

None of the main characters seem to have any kind of moral compass at all, although some of the supporting characters show empathy by trying to help Baker and deter him from killing.

Violence & Scariness

A man is said to be abusing his wife. He stands next to her naked body and removes his belt; she's later shown with welts on her back. A character is assaulted offscreen; his hand is broken, his face bruised. Lots of blood. A character dies, dragged into the ocean. Main character threatens two others with a knife. A boy draws a knife. Murder is discussed. Discussion of "little girls" being available as prostitutes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Main character has sex with two women. His naked bottom is shown. Thrusting, moaning, kissing. A woman's partial naked bottom is shown. Main character shown shirtless in several scenes. Main character swims naked, seen only in silhouette. Man smacks his wife's behind.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent language includes uses of "f--k," "f---ing," "motherf----r," "s--t," "c--k," "pr--k," "ass," "hell," "bastard," "son of a bitch," "damn," and "goddamn."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Characters are frequently shown drinking (mostly beer and rum) to excess in a social context. In a moment of despair, the main character downs two bottles of rum (but sobers up fairly quickly). A secondary character is a hard drinker, possibly an alcoholic. Main character smokes cigarettes in more than one scene.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Serenity is a mature thriller/film noir starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway . Domestic abuse is suggested: A man is shown taking off his belt next to his naked wife; later, welts are seen on her back. A boy pulls a knife, a character is killed, and lots of blood is shown when a character's hand is broken. Murder is discussed, and there's a disturbing mention of "little girls" working as prostitutes. Characters' naked bottoms are seen (both male and female), and the main character has sex with two women on three occasions, with thrusting, groaning, and some kissing. Language is also very strong, with frequent uses of "f--k," "s--t," and more. Characters drink frequently, sometimes to the point of extreme drunkenness. The main character smokes cigarettes. The film goes in an unexpected direction, and while it works for a while, by the halfway point, it comes pretty badly unraveled. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parents say (5)
Kids say (3)

Based on 5 parent reviews

I don't like it. Very disappointing

What's the story.

In SERENITY, Baker Dill ( Matthew McConaughey ) lives on a remote island and runs a fishing boat, renting fishing trips to tourists along with his first mate, Duke ( Djimon Hounsou ). Baker sometimes sleeps with the lonely Constance ( Diane Lane ) and sometimes stops for a glass of rum, but mostly he thinks about catching a large, elusive tuna called "Justice." Then the beautiful Karen ( Anne Hathaway ) appears. Karen and Baker had a past together, and a son, but now she's married to the abusive, drunken Frank ( Jason Clarke ). Frank is coming for a fishing trip, and Karen asks Baker to take him out, get him drunk, and throw him overboard to be eaten by sharks. For this, she'll pay Baker $10 million. Baker must decide what to do, but things get more complicated when an unusual fishing gear salesman ( Jeremy Strong ) shows up with some unexpected information.

Is It Any Good?

Starting out with promise, like a glossy, heated, modern-day film noir tribute, this thriller eventually begins to reveal its twist, and everything that was working until then simply collapses. Written and directed by Steven Knight , who usually specializes in dark, noir-like stories ( Eastern Promises , Locke , etc.), Serenity goes in a more science fiction-y direction, and several things fall apart. For one, the heightened performance style, presumably borrowed from classic movies like Double Indemnity , stops working as well within the new context. It becomes difficult to care about the characters, and the actors' oversized performances are somewhat silly. (Only Hounsou somehow hangs on to his dignity.)

And the entire film noir concept, with its sex, booze, and murder, doesn't make any sense when the twist comes; it's actually somewhat icky in context. Even the twist is handled poorly. Rather than saving it for a jaw-dropping moment at the very end, it's slowly foreshadowed (through odd cuts and camera movements and some dream/nightmare sequences), revealed early, and explained extensively, without leaving even the slightest possible hint of ambiguity about what's really going on. There's no mystery. The island scenery is appealing -- with occasional lightning storms adding atmosphere to the bright island air -- and Hathaway makes a great femme fatale. It's too bad Serenity couldn't have been a straight-up film noir from start to finish.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Serenity 's violence . What's shown, and what's not shown? How did the violent scenes affect you?

How does the movie depict sex ? How would you describe the main character's attitude toward it? What values are imparted?

How is drinking depicted? How often do characters drink too much? Are there realistic consequences? Why does that matter?

How did you feel about the movie's twist? Did it shed light on the rest of the movie? Did it betray what you'd thought you'd seen? What makes for a good twist vs. a bad one?

What is film noir? Where did the genre come from, and what mood does it try to capture?

Movie Details

In theaters : January 25, 2019
On DVD or streaming : April 30, 2019
Cast : Matthew McConaughey , Anne Hathaway , Jason Clarke
Director : Steven Knight
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Aviron Pictures
Genre : Thriller
Run time : 106 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : language throughout, sexual content, and some bloody images
Last updated : February 21, 2024

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Matthew McConaughey's Serenity Is So Insane That No Headline Can Begin to Do it Justice

Get high, do some squats, and prepare for the most batshit, lazy twist of our generation.

I have a theory about Matthew McConaughey, and it is this: I think he walked on stage to accept his Oscar in 2014, and he has not stopped talking since. Sure, the musical director cued the band and Matthew left the stage, but the speech—one meandering monologue about self and God and creativity—has continued, uninterrupted, for five years and counting.

Further, I believe that his work since then— Interstellar , those car commercials, every talk show appearance—has been the result of filmmakers and fellow actors just rolling with it. They don’t go to McConaughey’s agents with scripts or pitches anymore, they just approach him directly, build a set around him, and hope for the best. Sometimes you get a True Detective , sometimes you get a series of industrial workplace safety videos, but you always get an extended mumble about the nature of existence and at least three clear and vivid butt shots. That’s a Matthew McConaughey guarantee, alright, alright, alright.

The latest gang to take the McConaughey Challenge includes Anne Hathaway, Diane Lane, Djimon Hounsou, and writer/director Steven Knight. The result is Serenity , and Serenity is fucking crazy. I would say “spoiler alert” here, but the movie pretty much comes at you pre-spoiled: We open on a shot of a child’s face, and then zoom way into his left eye, wherein lies a placid blue sea, a fishing boat called Serenity, and a sun-damaged Matthew McConaughey making zero sense. Right from the beginning, you know that Things Are Not What They Seem, all that remains to be determined is How and Whether You Will Care. When one of the tourists who have rented his boat gets a tug on his fishing line, Matthew McConaughey (whose name in this movie is Baker Dill, but in every other way he is Matthew McConaughey) grabs the rod from him. “I paid you $700 cash for this,” the tourist protests, but to no avail. McConaughey is determined to reel in this fish—a big old tuna he calls “Justice”—once and for all. No dice on this try; Justice gets away, and the guy who just said he has already paid $700 cash says “If you think I’m paying you one cent for this, you’re out of your mind.” So right away, you learn two things: Matthew McConaughey is on a mission, and the production company did not splash out on extravagances like a script supervisor.

Matthew McConaughey has a Matthew McConakid somewhere out in the world, and sometimes when he’s underwater, he and the boy can sort of communicate telepathically. Matthew McConaughey went off to war when the kid was young, and when he came back everything was different, and the kid’s mom had taken up with a violent guy. So he came here, to Plymouth Island, one of these island paradises where people talk about Miami a lot, but the steering wheel is on the other side of the car, and there’s a very folksy local radio station where the DJ seems to be talking just to him, and you’re like: yes, I get it, Matthew McConaughey, you’re dead, get those pants off already.

He does. Occasionally, Matthew McConaughey goes over to Diane Lane’s house to have sex with her, after which she pays him. He does not appear to have this arrangement with anyone else, and there is no world, even in the realm of fantasy, where Diane Lane pays anyone for sex, but then you realize that when he’s fucking he’s not talking, and it hits you that she’s paying for silence, and it is worth it. Oh and sometimes she’s looking for her cat, and sometimes he finds her cat, and the idea that this is going to become significant later in the movie feels like a threat.

Also, Matthew McConaughey is being pursued by a man in a suit with a briefcase who is always just a few seconds late. He even says it: “I am always just a few seconds late,” just in case you’re wondering whether it’s significant that he’s always just a few seconds late. The island folk call him “The Skinny Man,” even though he is just sort of regular, and if you’re wondering why it’s significant that he’s always just a few seconds late, congratulations, you’ve thought about this movie more than anyone involved in its production. He is played by Jeremy Strong, and the overall effect is “Steve Mnuchin in the eventual Reelz Channel original movie about the Trump administration.”

So then Anne Hathaway shows up in a blond wig, but you can totally tell it’s her. She is a mysterious gal out of a completely different movie, and you figure out she's his ex-wife before he does. She tells him their kid has become a recluse who plays on his computer all day, and oh by the way, she’d like him to kill her abusive husband. The abusive husband is played by Jason Clarke, who heard about subtlety once and was like “No, thank you.” The whole thing is very Double Indemnity , if Fred MacMurray did mushrooms and kept showing you his beautiful ass.

Matthew McConaughey thinks about killing Jason Clarke, but everyone else on Plymouth Island seems to be there to talk him out of it. “Get The Beast instead,” says everyone, because the big tuna is now called “The Beast” instead of “Justice.” Jason Clarke tells him his stepson plays on his computer all the time, and he once asked him why, and the kid said “It’s what I do so I don’t kill you.” Also, when he’s not playing at the computer, the kid stares at a photo of himself and Matthew McConaughey, then turns it over and it says “ME AND DAD BACK THEN,” and I sigh so heavily the movie screen ripples.

So of course Matthew McConaughey died in the war, and the whole thing—Baker Dill, the boat, the big beast justice tuna, Plymouth Island, the cat, the skinny man who isn’t—turns out to be part of a big game the McConakid has designed on his computer. He’s making and playing a game so he doesn’t stab his stepdad, even though stabbing his stepdad seems like a good idea for everyone, and he’s designed a world where he can communicate with his dead father and his dead father will also have distracting lifelong busywork in the form of this elusive tuna. But then the kid re-codes the game and has Matthew McConaughey kill his dad, which he does, which then the kid does in real life, and immediately gets off on self-defense and everyone lives happily ever after, so you kind of have to wonder why he went to all the computer trouble.

You might also wonder why all the other townsfolk were so against Matthew McConaughey killing Jason Clarke, or whether they have missions of their own, or why Jeremy Strong turns out to be a personification of “The Rules,” or why it was significant that he was always a few seconds late, or why a kid would design a game which would allow him to watch his father fucking Diane Lane for money, or whether Matthew McConaughey’s actual consciousness lives on within this computer simulation, or whether this is all just a complicated way for a grieving child to engage with the memory of his father. I would urge you not to wonder too hard, because you are not going to find out. But please join me in congratulating “It was all a computer simulation” for having beaten “it was all an autistic child’s dream” and “it was all a deathbed hallucination” as America’s Hottest Lazy Way To Pull The Rug Out From Under An Audience.

As a movie, I did not love it, but as a reminder to get high and do some squats, I found it useful. As a way for Matthew McConaughey to monetize his ongoing soliloquy about the mystery of consciousness, Serenity is quite simply a work of genius. He’s going to be doing this anyway, might as well bring some cameras and Djimon Hounsou.

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The 10 best mystery movies of the last 5 years, ranked, 10 movies to watch if you liked 'bridgerton' season 3.

When it comes to seeing movies, people like to know what they’re going into. Films with low CinemaScores tend to be where the marketing did not match up with the actual film, so something like Killing Them Softly , which is sold as an action film, gets an “F” because it’s actually about the decline of America and how in an economic crisis even hitmen can’t get paid. By the metric of what’s being sold and what the film actually is, I imagine most people will hate Steven Knight ’s new movie, Serenity . What’s being sold as a sultry thriller is only what’s on the surface of a movie with an absolutely bonkers twist. Even if you see the twist coming, you won’t believe that Knight actually went for, and it pays off for a film that’s far more memorable than a B-movie tale of sex and murder.

Baker Dill ( Matthew McConaughey ) is a fisherman living on the island of Plymouth where he’s always broke as he tries to catch a big tuna that consumes his every waking hour. Baker is content to try and catch the big fish every day until his ex-wife, Karen ( Anne Hathaway ), strolls back into his life with a proposition. Her new husband, Frank ( Jason Clarke ), is physically abusive to both her and Patrick ( Rafael Sayegh ), the son she had with Baker back when he went by his real name, John. Karen offers to pay Baker $10 million in cash if he takes Frank out on his boat, kills him, and feeds him to the sharks. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure ( Jeremy Strong ), keeps trying to track Baker down for an important conversation.

For the first two-thirds of Serenity , the film is kind of baffling. It’s tough to understand what’s happening because its banality seems to be covering up something more complicated and engaging, and you want to peek behind the curtain. You watch Oscar-winners McConaughey and Hathaway exchange reheated dialogue from Body Heat and you wonder why two A-list actors would star in what appears to be a Skinemax movie. Nothing seems to make a lot of sense in terms of the tone, and you’re constantly wondering what Strong’s character is up to.

I made a guess early on (about twenty minutes into the movie) about what the twist could be, and I turned out to be right. But I wouldn’t call Serenity predictable because I was stunned that Knight actually went for it. The twist is stunningly audacious and the kind of swing for the fences where I have to respect the ambition involved. For some people, the twist won’t work and it will render a film where they had already checked out as unsalvageable. And I’ll admit that the twist doesn’t work completely because it forces you to reevaluate things that no longer make sense in the new context. But overall, I think the twist serves the movie well and gives Serenity a heart where before there was only tired clichés.

In order to explain why I like the movie, I’m going to have to reveal the twist because talking around it is both a disservice to the film and to you, the reader. If you want to go in cold—and you absolutely should before anyone spoils this movie for you—please stop reading now, and come back after you see Serenity . Even if you don’t like the movie, I think you’ll at least admire its gall.

Spoilers ahead. Final warning.

The twist is that everything in Serenity is a video game created by Patrick. You can put it together early on when you note that the first shot of the film is zooming into Patrick’s eye (telling us that this is in his mind) and then about twenty minutes in when we learn that Patrick spends most of his day playing a video game on his computer about fishing. It turns out that the video game is something Patrick coded himself and it’s a way to connect to the father he lost, Baker, who in reality died in the Iraq War. The game also functions as an escape from his abusive home life with Frank, who beats him and Karen. The game changes when Patrick changes his focus from wanting to just fish “with” his dad to having his dad murder Frank in the game, which correlates to Patrick considering if he too should kill Frank in order to protect Karen in the real world.

The way films are presented to us matters. It would be nice if there was no packaging and no box and you saw everything without any frame of reference, but it’s almost always there. Serenity presents itself as a sultry thriller and instead it’s far closer to an episode Black Mirror . And if Serenity had been an episode of Black Mirror , no one would have a batted an eye, because we know that every episode is dark, twisted, and has some relationship to technology. As good as an episode like “San Junipero” is, we watch it not believing that it takes place in the 1980s but waiting for the other shoe to drop. Serenity is deeply reluctant to let us even know there are shoes.

Within this framework of “the film is a video game in the mind of a traumatized teenager”, not everything works. Because this is now in Patrick’s imagination, you have to accept that Patrick is writing scenes where the avatar for his dad is having sex with a hot older woman ( Diane Lane ) for money and later having rough-then-tender sex with Karen. You have to assume that Patrick really loves Body Heat , Double Indemnity , and trashy Cinemax movies, which, for a teenage boy, isn’t out of the realm of possibility. You also have to assume that a teenage boy would invest his energy into building a deeply detailed fishing game, which, given the popularity of games like Harvest Moon , Animal Crossing , and Stardew Valley , again, isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

I assume the “video game” aspect of everything will catch some people off guard, but for me, it makes sense. If Patrick had been writing a novel about his father, perhaps the twist would be more “reasonable”, but it makes more sense for it to be a video game. Video games are the storytelling medium for a new generation, and when you factor in the nature of choice and motivation that games present, it makes a lot of sense for Serenity to be a video game. It’s also clear, with Strong’s character working for a company called “Fontaine” and the film wrestling with the nature of choice and compulsion, that Knight has most likely played Bioshock , so he’s not ignorant of the medium.

When you look at Serenity through the eyes of Patrick, it becomes a far more interesting, and far sadder movie. It’s about a son who never got to know his father, is now stuck with a man who beats him and his mother, and has to create a fantasy world where someone will come save him. For me, that’s far more compelling than “Will a grizzled fisherman kill his ex-wife’s abusive husband for $10 million?” That story is fine for what it is, but Knight chose to do something big and bold by using that thin story as a springboard for something more in line with science fiction than pulp fiction. I didn’t go into Serenity expecting a film where Matthew McConaughey questions the nature of his reality, but I’m glad that I got it even if it can be messy and nuts on the way there.

Anne Hathaway

Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway Are Sunk in ‘Serenity’

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

How can you miss with a film noir starring Matthew McConaughey as a fisherman tempted by femme fatale Anne Hathaway to feed her sadistic husband to the sharks for $10 million? And, hell, the script is by Steven Knight, who did himself proud with Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Promises and directed the formidable Locke with Tom Hardy. And yet the batshit bonkers Serenity fails on every level, first as entertainment and then as a new-agey thumbsucker about a magical, mystical tour through the subconscious. Serenity finds new definitions of bad that almost make the damn thing worth watching for its magnificent flameout.

But almost doesn’t cut it. Serenity goes wrong in ways that are more staggeringly dull than perversely delicious. The movie just plods along as we watch McConaughey, as Iraq veteran turned fishing-boat captain Baker Dill, go tropical on Plymouth Island, a paradise off the Florida coast (the film was shot in Mauritius in the Indian Ocean). Baker and his faithful first mate, Duke (Djimon Hounsou), spend their days taking out rich tourists to hook a tuna Baker calls the “beast” or “Justice” — pick your favorite metaphor. The thing is Baker goes nuts if any of his customers even come close to hooking the fish. Justice, that beast, belongs to him, though he can’t seem to catch him. The allegory overload is crushing.

At night, Baker enjoys sweaty sex with Constance (Diane Lane), who pays him for the privilege and begs him to find her missing cat (more metaphors). Enter Hathaway in a blonde wig as Karen, an old love with whom he fathered a son, Patrick (Rafael Sayegh), a teen who buries his love for his absent father in video games. Serenity is a movie where everyone plays at the “game” of life.

Are you catching the film’s inexorable drift into haunted psyche territory? Serenity plays like the bastard child of Body Heat and The Sixth Sense , minus the heat and the sense. At first, Baker is reluctant to go for the bucks to kill Karen’s husband Frank, played by Jason Clarke like a hateful glare made flesh. Then the creep shows up asking about a place on the island where “little girls will take it in the ass for 10 bucks a pop.” #Eww. If you don’t want Baker to kill Frank instantly you will when you learn that the sleaze viciously beats Karen and the boy. What’s a father to do? Baker seems to be getting telepathic messages from his kid to save him from this predatory stepdad.

Is anyone seeing dead people? The twist in the plot is too left-field to predict, but when it comes you’ll have to suspend disbelief to the point of blindness. Serenity is unburdened by logic or a single good reason for existing. The actors look trapped, pained to utter the next line of dialogue. Young Patrick buries his head in video games, but it’s the audience that gets played. What an infuriating mess the makers of Serenity have unloaded on an unsuspecting public. It’s still only January, but Serenity has already earned a place among the year’s worst movies. Karen can keep her millions. I’d feed this misfire to the sharks free of charge.

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Serenity movie review: Should you ignore the reviews and see it?

By michael bibbins | jan 28, 2019.

MARINA DEL REY, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 11: Matthew McConaughey (L) and Anne Hathaway attend the photo call for Aviron Pictures "Serenity" at Ritz Carlton Hotel on January 11, 2019 in Marina del Rey, California. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

Serenity has horrible reviews from both critics and viewers alike, but is it really as bad as the reviews make it seem?

I read a description for Serenity back in October of last year and, based on the cast and the crime thriller basis, I decided that I’d do a review for the film. Fast-forward 3 months and I hadn’t thought too much about the film since October. I didn’t watch any trailers and I completely forgot what it was about.

I went in blind and I believe this is why I didn’t hate the movie as much as most viewers seemed to.

The premise

The main description for Serenity essentially tries to sell the film on the idea that Matthew McConaughey is playing a mysterious fisherman whose ex-wife, played by Anne Hathaway, tracks him down to kill her abusive husband.

How could the reception have been avoided?

Often in these situations I try to put myself into the role of a studio executive or someone else in the decision-making process for the film. I think that Serenity’s problem is two-fold.

First, it markets itself as a serious thriller and the cast and trailer play into that idea. Then it’s rated R, complete with blood, sex, and language which, again, makes it seem like a movie intended for the serious crime-thriller movie-goers. Those viewers are not going to like this movie.

I would argue that this film should have been toned down and targeted a PG-13 fantasy audience based on its actual premise. An audience that is more open-minded and takes itself less seriously will be more likely to appreciate the premise. The movie ends up being serious, yes, but also has a juvenile angle. That’s the best way I can describe it without ruining the movie, but it is this juvenile angle that ruins the movie for most people.

Should I see it or not?

I would not put my name on the line to say ignore the reviews. However, my goal is to help you decide if you should bother watching. Serenity is a sentimental story at its core, and if you can accept the idea behind the story, it will hit you in your feelings. Most people who didn’t like the movie simply didn’t like the execution of the premise though, for me, all of the things that I found to be weaknesses early in the film made more sense after the underlying idea is exposed.

The movie asks you to both appreciate the idea as well as accept the things you’ll likely hated in the first half of the movie based on their relationship to the idea. This is a lot to ask of most viewers. While I personally can appreciate both, I understand why most didn’t.

Next. West of Sunshine Review. dark

I won’t say the movie is complete trash, but it is definitely one that is only going to be enjoyable to a certain type of viewer, which is not what they were going for.

Serenity is currently playing in theaters.

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The rest, meantime, dog-paddles around trying to figure out what to do with its own story, and how to do it, and who swiped the narrative compass, and where it’s all going, and why the payoff is so very, very not quite right.

We’re venturing into heavy spoiler waters here, so let’s avoid the reveals, big or small. In a faraway place called Plymouth Island (played by the Indian Ocean isle of Mauritius), battle-scarred Iraq war veteran Baker Dill has remade himself as a fishing boat skipper, renting out to drunken louts who wouldn’t know a deep-sea tuna from a bottle of tequila.

Dill knows his stuff. With the single-minded ferocity of Herman Melville’s Ahab, and despite the pleas of his wise, soulful first mate Duke (Djimon Hounsou), he takes every oceangoing opportunity to chase a certain special tuna that’s out there, somewhere. Everyone knows about Dill’s obsession; everyone on Plymouth Island knows everybody else’s business. Even the local radio station exhorts: “Get out there and catch that damn fish!”

Back on shore, Dill’s ex-wife, Karen (Anne Hathaway), shows up with her abusive millionaire husband (Jason Clarke). Back home, Karen has a son (Rafael Sayegh) fathered by Dill, but Karen’s second husband doesn’t know the father’s identity. In flashbacks, and scenes suggesting an “Interstellar”-ish psychic link between Dill and his son thousands of miles away, we’re shown glimpses of the boy, hiding in his bedroom from his loathsome stepdad, typing away at a computer at all hours.

The noir angle of “Serenity” emerges early on, when sullen, murmuring Karen offers Dill $10 mil to kill her tormentor. The rest of the story dwells on stranger tides. This we know going in, from the poster tagline: “On Plymouth Island, no one ever dies … unless you break the rules.” And what’s the deal with the peculiar man with a briefcase, looking like a fish out of water?

Long before the midpoint, “Serenity” suggests rather too strongly that all is either “Lost” (as in the TV show) or simply lost (as in missing in action and lacking in persuasion). Some may find the endgame powerful and moving. The writer-director Steven Knight has written some fine screenplays, including “Dirty Pretty Things,” “Eastern Promises” and the one-man Tom Hardy showcase “Locke,” which he also directed. Knight has also written his share of disappointments, among them the WWII romance “Allied” and the Bradley Cooper vehicle “Burnt,” a portrait of a brilliant but temperamental chef. The atmosphere in “Serenity,” by design, imparts a slightly uneasy and hermetic feeling. In Baker Dill, who sounds like a line of gourmet pickles, Knight has the makings of a compellingly messed-up antihero.

That’s a start. If movies were all start, then this one might’ve worked.

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

[email protected]

Twitter @phillipstribune

“Serenity” — 1.5 stars

MPAA rating : R (for language throughout, sexual content, and some bloody images)

Running time : 1:46

Opens : Thursday evening

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Serenity's Wild Twist Ending Explained

Baker Dill is just a character in a fishing video game created by his son Patrick, leading to a surprising twist at the end.
Serenity's ending suggests acceptance and new beginnings, with symbolic colors indicating different outcomes for the characters.
The movie explores simulation theory, raising questions about reality being controlled by a higher power or technological God like Patrick.

The Serenity movie explained that nothing was as it seemed, and it concluded with a twist ending unlike almost any other. Steven Knight’s critically-panned film appeared to be a traditional thriller but a final act twist disrupts the narrative structure. Serenity begins with a close-up of the eyes of a young boy, and from there, the focus immediately shifts to Matthew McConaughey’s Baker Dill, a fishing guide. When Baker's ex-wife Karen (Anne Hathaway) shows up, she makes an offer that he can’t quite refuse.

She wants Baker to kill her abusive husband Frank (Jason Clarke) during a scheduled fishing clip. Baker is more interested in being a good father to his son, and speaking with him through seemingly telepathic means. Given Serenity’s noir elements, the narrative suggests Baker's free will ultimately determines the outcome. However, the major twist is that Baker is being controlled by somebody else and that Plymouth Island is a computer simulation . In this world, Serenity isn’t just a boat, and Justice isn’t merely a fish.

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Serenity Is About A Fishing Video Game Re-Coded For Revenge

Baker's son created the game based on memories of his dad.

Throughout Serenity , Baker speaks to his absent son, suggesting there’s a strong bond in place and that they will ultimately be reunited; a surrealistic image of Baker meeting with a boy underwater aligns with his story. Meanwhile, Baker's nemesis Frank speaks about his step-son, and how he likes to play video games, with the film repeatedly cutting away to an adolescent creating code in his room (while adults fight nearby).

Serenity’s wildcard comes in the form of Strong’s mysterious business person, Reid Miller. During a night of heavy rain, he catches up with Baker and reveals a crucial bit of information after drinking some alcohol. His primary goal is to sell Baker a new piece of fishing equipment, but he’s first offering a free trial. When Baker presses Reid about his intentions, he exclaims, “ I am the rules .” Ultimately, Baker discovers he’s living in a video game world created by his son Patrick (Rafael Sayegh).

Baker's compulsion for fishing is merely a character trait, a piece of computer code.

The primary objective is being changed. Baker's compulsion for fishing is merely a character trait, a piece of computer code. Patrick decides to drastically change “ the rules, ” to live out the fantasy of killing his abusive, real-life step-father. In the simulation, the now self-aware protagonist, Baker, is destabilized by the ever-changing code, unaware if he should fish or kill. Once Patrick completes the new code, Baker follows through with the command.

He is, in part, aided by a new character who appears to be a simulated version of the video game creator - Patrick. In Serenity , Baker finds Justice and Frank — the simulated version of Patrick's step-father — takes a final journey towards Justice. But that’s not Serenity 's final reveal: Baker's real-life inspiration, Patrick's father, is deceased . He was killed during military service in Iraq. Baker represents an idealized version of what might’ve been.

Patrick Kills His Stepfather For Real At The End Of Serenity

Patrick stabs the man with a knife.

For the majority of Serenity , Patrick uses free will in a world of his own creation . To the viewer, he may seem like a powerless kid, one forced to endure the violence taking place in the next room. Like many kids in similar situations, Patrick retreats into his personal "compulsion," thus transferring energy to the simulated version of his dead father. Through Baker, Patrick could watch his mother and father reunite. He may infuse his creative influences to manipulate a customized world.

But as the wiring of Patrick’s brain changes in Serenity , his creative concepts become a dark and twisted fantasy. Giving Baker free will to kill Frank isn’t enough. Instead, Patrick transfers Baker's power back to himself, in the real world, and the game's creator ultimately leaves his computer to find real-life justice. Serenity doesn’t end with Patrick’s real-life freedom, though he does experience salvation in his own mind (more on that later).

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The Foreshadowing Of Serenity's Video Game Twist

The movie set this up from the first scene.

From the very beginning, Serenity foreshadows a simulated world. Of course, there’s the opening shot, in which the audience is taken into the mind of a young boy, Patrick. When Baker first appears, however, there’s no indication that what’s being presented on screen isn’t real. Baker appears to be another grumpy fisherman, one who is passionate about his work. In that sense, Baker's introduction is universally relatable , as he fails while doing something he loves; he doesn't land the big catch, Justice.

Baker DIll is the Hero, Duke the Sidekick, Karen the Femme Fatale, Frank the Baddie, and Constance as the Idealized Love Interest.

There's something a little off in Serenity's land scenes. The characters don’t seem to have much depth; they speak in clichés. Also, McConaughey’s character is repeatedly called by his full name, Baker Dill. In retrospect, the noir archetypes make sense because the characters aren't supposed to have much depth; they’re just thinly-veiled versions of genre archetypes: Baker Dill is the Hero, Duke the Sidekick, Karen the Femme Fatale, Frank the Baddie, and Constance as the Idealized Love Interest.

In addition, Karen references "the real world" when speaking about Facebook . At that point, Serenity suggests these characters live in a parallel world, subtle as it may be. While offering $10 million to Baker, Karen acknowledges the reason she’s there: to make an offer her ex-husband can’t refuse. Later, a supporting character tells Baker that he’s just in his own head, and Duke — the loyal friend — reinforces certain rules that Baker must live by.

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In this simulation, Baker does indeed have an Iraq backstory. And during a moment of reflection, he states that he "didn’t really come back." As Serenity progresses, it becomes evident that no one is supposed to die in Patrick’s simulation, which explains the collective character confusion when the creator begins working away on new code, all the while contemplating his own free will.

To complement the dialogue’s foreshadowing, Serenity uses visual motifs to support genre tropes while associating characters with specific colors. Plymouth Island is full of bold reds, greens, whites, and blues; all of which match the design of Patrick’s room. When Baker accepts he is part of a simulation, he asks someone about the island’s exact location in the world. In the subsequent phone call shot, the color scheme is red, white, and blue, matching Patrick’s geographical location, the United States.

What Serenity's Ending Really Means

The movie takes on different meanings for different people.

In Serenity 's ending sequence, the movie pays homage to the film's genre influences while making a bigger statement. When Baker speaks with his son on the phone, this is where Serenity allows for various interpretations, depending on the viewer's personal experiences. On one level, Serenity ’s ending appears to suggest that Patrick has accepted his father’s death , which in turn correlates with new beginnings and life itself.

When the two meet on a dock in the final shot, Patrick wears a bold red shirt and Baker now wears a bold blue one. The implications are that Patrick isn’t out of the water, so to speak, he definitely has legal problems (red symbolizes trouble). And for Baker, there’s a sense of clarity, evidenced by a solid shade of blue. Most importantly, the two are together, surrounded by a bright white light.

Justice comes in many forms, and Serenity can mean many things.

Serenity also raises questions about simulation theory, the idea that the world is controlled by a higher power, a technological God. Author Chuck Klosterman addresses this concept in his 2016 book But What If We're Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past , in which he discusses the idea that life as we know it is merely the creation of a kid like Serenity's Patrick, someone living in the future playing out various simulations and fantasies. Justice comes in many forms, and Serenity can mean many things.

Other Movies With Simulation Endings

The matrix, the truman show, & more.

There are several movies where the entire plot is about a computer simulation. The most obvious example is The Matrix . In that movie, it isn't the end that is a simulation, but the start. However, as the franchise rolled on, it made one wonder what was real and what was simulated. There are even hints in The Matrix: Resurrections that even the real world and rebellion were computer simulations to keep the humans occupied with thinking they were freeing themselves while the computers remained in control.

The Truman Show was the perfect example of an entire movie being a simulation.

While not a "computer simulation," The Truman Show was the perfect example of an entire movie being a simulation. In this film, Jim Carrey stars as Truman Burbank, a man who lives an ideal life. However, he soon realizes that something might not be right. He ultimately discovers that his life is fake. He lives in a town where everyone else are actors and his entire life is one of the most-watched TV shows in the world. He is the only one who didn't know he lived in a fantasy world.

Duncan Jones created a movie that set up a simulation to solve a crime. In Source Code , Jake Gyllenhaal plays U.S. Army Captain Colter Steven. He gets onto a train and then, to his horror, realizes there is a bomb. The train explodes and he dies. The only problem is that he wakes up and gets on the train again. Soon, Colt learns he was a soldier who was almost killed, lost most of his body parts, and remains on life support to learn who planted the bomb on the train. Unlike Serenity , when Colt realizes what is going on, he sets out to make a change.

Director Steven Knight

Release Date January 25, 2019

Distributor(s) Aviron Pictures

Writers Steven Knight

Cast Edeen Bhugeloo, Kenneth Fok, Garion Dowds, Djimon Hounsou, Matthew McConaughey, Diane Lane, Anne Hathaway, Rafael Sayegh, Jeremy Strong, Robert Hobbs, Jason Clarke

Runtime 106 minutes

Sailor Moon Watch Previously Limited to Just 50 Pieces Worldwide Gets Rare Re-Release

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A much-coveted Sailor Moon collectible is being re-released exclusively for the Pretty Guardians Fan Club. Official members of the fan club will be able to get their hands on replicas of a Sailor Moon gold watch first issued by lottery only for Nakayoshi magazine, of which just 50 pieces in the world were ever originally made.

Considered by many as the frontrunner of the magical girl genre, Sailor Moon endures as one of manga's most popular shojo protagonists . The IP has massively outgrown its initial serialized run in Nakayoshi magazine, all thanks to mounting support from a staunch fan base. Sailor Moon is also considered one of the reasons for Nakayoshi 's massive readership. First published in December 1991, Sailor Moon helped to increase the magazine's circulation from 800,000 to two million by 1993. The magazine marked that publishing milestone with 50 commemorative gold watches released by lottery to readers. Now, Sailor Moon Official has confirmed that replicas of the original watch will be relaunched for Pretty Guardians Fan Club members.

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The Sailor Moon '90s anime is set to return via Toonami, along with other fan-favorite anime classics in a new retro-style block on Cartoon Network.

The Sailor Moon watch is currently exclusive to current and prospective Pretty Guardians club members in Japan and, likely later on, to international members (to be confirmed). Franchise mega-fans can expect the item to pair well with inspired apparel and transformation-themed jewelry .

Kodansha US publishes the English version of the Sailor Moon manga, while the '90s anime adaptation is available to stream on Hulu. The 2015 reboot series, titled Sailor Moon Crystal , currently streams on Netflix and Crunchyroll.

Source: Sailor Moon Official

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Serenity (2019) Movie Review
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Serenity movie review: Should you ignore the reviews and see it?
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SERENITY MOVIE REVIEW 2019
Movie Review: SERENITY

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Serenity movie review & film summary (2019)
Ads. Powered by JustWatch. " Serenity " is terrible and insane, and will surely end up being one of the worst films of 2019. But it's also such a wildly ambitious roller coaster ride that it must be experienced, preferably with friends, to laugh together at its cheesy dialogue, over-the-top performances and multiple, major plot twists.
Serenity
82% Tomatometer 189 Reviews 91% Audience Score 250,000+ Ratings In this continuation of the television series "Firefly," a group of rebels travels the outskirts of space aboard their ship ...
Serenity (2019)
Rated: D Apr 4, 2024 Full Review Manuel São Bento MSB Reviews Serenity tries to go big and bold, but falls astonishingly flat. Plot holes, logical incongruencies, awful dialogues, terrible ...
Serenity (2019)
Serenity: Directed by Steven Knight. With Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Diane Lane, Jason Clarke. A fishing boat captain juggles facing his mysterious past and finding himself ensnared in a reality where nothing is what it seems.
Serenity (2019 film)
Serenity is a 2019 American mystery thriller film written, produced and directed by Steven Knight. The film stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Diane Lane, Jason Clarke, Djimon Hounsou, and Jeremy Strong, and follows a fishing boat captain who is approached by his ex-wife to murder her abusive new husband.First announced in January 2017, principal photography on the film began on ...
Serenity
The settings and tone are hyper-real, yet the human behaviour is grounded and credible, the moral conflicts complex and involving. Shiny, intelligent fun. Full Review | Jun 24, 2006. In the ...
'Serenity' Review: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and One Very Bad
For reasons known only to Knight, "Serenity" couldn't just be a film noir. He's laid some kind of science-fiction nonsense atop it because, apparently, the movie needed a ply of trashy ...
Movie Review: Serenity (2019)
There are parts in Serenity when something vaguely supernatural happens and the tinkly triangles and shimmery harps came through nicely. I knew why because I had been ceiling-watching. I'm ...
Serenity
Summary This story of a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. (Universal) Action. Adventure. Sci-Fi.
Serenity (2019) Review
Serenity is a genuine headscratcher, baffling on almost every level. Badly scripted, strangely acted and poorly pitched, there is so much to pick over it's hard to know where to begin. Sometimes ...
Serenity Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 5 ): Kids say ( 15 ): SERENITY makes the future quite like the present, and that's not a bad thing. Though occasionally clunky in structure and execution (some images reportedly culled from unused footage from Joss Whedon's TV series Firefly, from which the storyline and characters are drawn), the movie is entertaining ...
Serenity
Movie Review. Everybody knows everything on Plymouth Island. Except for Baker Dill. A war veteran and current recluse on the lazy, secluded island, Baker has hidden himself away—away from his past, his responsibilities and, sometimes, his own thoughts. He lives his predictable days taking his boat—good 'ole Serenity—out on the ocean.
Serenity
Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey) is a fishing boat captain leading tours off a tranquil, tropical enclave called Plymouth Island. His quiet life is shattered, however, when his ex-wife Karen (Anne Hathaway) tracks him down with a desperate plea for help. She begs Dill to save her - and their young son - from her new, violent husband (Jason Clarke) by taking him out to sea on a fishing ...
'Serenity': Film Review
Movies; Movie Reviews 'Serenity': Film Review. Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway star in 'Serenity,' a Florida-set romantic thriller from Steven Knight ('Locke'). By Todd McCarthy.
Serenity (2019) Movie Review
Again, Serenity attempts to reframe these noir archetypes with its plot twists, but mostly ends up making them feel even sillier than before. Still, despite its many shortcomings, there's some respectable craftsmanship on display here. Cinematographer Jess Hall does a nice job photographing the film's real-world backdrop (the island nation of Mauritius) and draws from a rich color palate to ...
Serenity Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 5 ): Kids say ( 3 ): Starting out with promise, like a glossy, heated, modern-day film noir tribute, this thriller eventually begins to reveal its twist, and everything that was working until then simply collapses. Written and directed by Steven Knight, who usually specializes in dark, noir-like stories ( Eastern ...
Serenity Movie Review
The latest gang to take the Matthew McConaughey Challenge includes Anne Hathaway, Diane Lane, Djimon Hounsou, and writer/director Steven Knight. The result is Serenity, and Serenity is fucking crazy.
Serenity Review: No One Is Prepared for This Movie
Read Matt Goldberg's Serenity review; Steven Knight's movie stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jason Clarke, Rafael Sayegh, and Jeremy Strong.
Serenity (4K UHD Review)
Review. Joss Whedon's Serenity opens with a flashback that reveals how Simon (Sean Maher) broke his sister, River (Summer Glau), out of an Alliance security base - events which are set prior the original Firefly TV series. But then the film leaps past the end of the series to continue the story of the transport Serenity and its crew. Because of her special abilities, Mal (Nathan Fillion ...
'Serenity' Movie Review; One of the Year's Worst: Travers
Serenity is unburdened by logic or a single good reason for existing. The actors look trapped, pained to utter the next line of dialogue. Young Patrick buries his head in video games, but it's ...
Serenity movie review: Should you ignore the reviews and see it?
I think that Serenity's problem is two-fold. First, it markets itself as a serious thriller and the cast and trailer play into that idea. Then it's rated R, complete with blood, sex, and ...
'Serenity' review: Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, wastin' away
The Matthew McConaughey hindquarters are looking fine in "Serenity," for the record. Their latest screen appearance, in the name of love scene realism and box office incentive, arrives …
Serenity's Wild Twist Ending Explained
Serenity's wildcard comes in the form of Strong's mysterious business person, Reid Miller. During a night of heavy rain, he catches up with Baker and reveals a crucial bit of information after ...
Sailor Moon Gets Re-Release of Rare Princess Serenity Pocket Watch
A much-coveted Sailor Moon collectible is being re-released exclusively for the Pretty Guardians Fan Club. Official members of the fan club will be able to get their hands on replicas of a Sailor Moon gold watch first issued by lottery only for Nakayoshi magazine, of which just 50 pieces in the world were ever originally made.. Considered by many as the frontrunner of the magical girl genre ...

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