Review: Serenity

Like most noirs, neo or otherwise, Serenity belongs to its women. And what a pair. There's Anne Hathaway, blonde and scarlet-lipped, often garbed in white like Lana Turner's equally trapped and desperate housewife in The Postman Always Rings Twice. Then there's Diane Lane, hot but never bothered, constantly looking as if she's just been sexually serviced which, during the course of the film, is often the case. They slink and vamp through this tropical but ho-hum noir, selling each senseless and predictable plot point and reheated dialogue as if it were Shakespeare rewritten by RuPaul.

Serenity is less of a noir than a simulacrum of one and, as evidenced by a third act twist that viewers will either love or groan at, that is very much by design. There have been comparisons to A Simple Favour, which is a bit misleading, since it possesses neither the flair of Paul Feig's neo-noir comedy nor does it unabashedly lean into either its bonkers plotting or the pulpishness to be found in a noir. In fact, it comes most alive when it embraces the luridness and nastiness of the genre.

Matthew McConaughey stars as Baker Dill, a decorated Iraq War veteran turned skipper of the Serenity, a tourist fishing boat operating off the Florida coast. He's always scrounging for money, due in large part to his propensity for obsessing over a giant tuna fish he's been trying to catch for years when he should be dealing with drunk tourists who have paid him and his pious first mate, Duke (Djimon Hounsou), good money to be taken out fishing. Not that Dill ever goes hungry, since he can always count on Constance (Lane) to throw some cash his way after their afternoon delights. "You're nothing more than a hooker," she teases, to which he replies with utter seriousness, "A hooker who can't afford hooks." Eyes will roll at writer-director Steven Knight's dialogue, though Lane at least injects some knowing deliciousness in a line like, "I like my cats to depend on me," before her character goes down on Dill.

Of all the bars in the world, Hathaway's Karen has to walk into Dill's local bar and bring trouble into his life. She's his ex-wife, the mother to his son from whom he's been estranged but whom he longs to see again. She's married to a brute named Frank (Jason Clarke), who's rich, drunk and abusive, and she wants out. The only way for her and their son to escape is for Dill to take Frank out on his boat, get him drunk, and then throw him overboard for the sharks to feast upon. She'll even pay him ten million dollars in cash to do it. Of course, Dill will hem and haw about whether to be led into this particular temptation. Moral conflict is the staple of any noir, but McConaughey isn't successful in conveying Dill's inner struggle. Unless he believes brooding whilst shirtless or stripping down practically ever fifteen minutes or so is the way to depict this?

In any case, by this time Serenity has dragged on without much incident and gets completely knocked off the rails by its twist, which is clever in and of itself, but doesn't actually make sense in the grand scheme of things. Not that sense and logic matter much in the film, but what Serenity presents itself to be and what it actually is are two entirely different things. One could say that what Knight attempts here is the cinematic version of a lamb in sheep's clothing. He may have gotten away with it had it been better and less clumsily executed. He might have even been hailed as somewhat of a genius, but one can't be congratulated for an almost.

Serenity

Directed by: Steven Knight

Written by: Steven Knight

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jason Clarke, Diane Lane, Djimon Hounsou, Jeremy Strong