serenity movie review

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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
672 User reviews
155 Critic reviews
37 Metascore
3 wins & 5 nominations

Top cast 18

Karen Zariakas

Frank Zariakas

Reid Miller

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

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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 672

Ambivalent about the twist.

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
Runtime 1 hour 46 minutes

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Film Review: ‘Serenity’

Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway are left adrift in this silly, soggy island noir.

By Andrew Barker

Andrew Barker

Senior Features Writer

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Shortly after the publication of his short story “The Vane Sisters” – in which a plot twist is revealed through a hidden acrostic message in the final paragraph – Vladimir Nabokov quipped that the narrative trick he employed was something that “can only be tried once in a thousand years of fiction.” Perhaps we’ll need to call for a similar moratorium, albeit for entirely different reasons, on the type of twist that powers Steven Knight’s soggy, island-bound noir “ Serenity .” Distinguished only by its starry cast and cinematographer Jess Hall’s beautiful lensing of some idyllic Mauritius locations, “Serenity” sees a usually reliable screenwriter-turned-director take a bold swing and miss the mark completely, so intent on pulling the rug out from under you that he never notices you weren’t even standing on it.

Though its trailer telegraphs a deeper mystery at play, the film’s ostensible plot couldn’t be simpler, inserting a Captain Ahab-type into a Hitchcockian murder scheme. Matthew McConaughey plays Baker Dill, a salty Iraq veteran-turned-fisherman struggling to make ends meet on a tiny tropical isle. He has a sturdy boat, a loyal first mate (Djimon Hounsou) and a steady supply of well-heeled tourists to take out on deep-sea fishing expeditions. But he’s become so obsessed with catching a massive, elusive tuna nicknamed “the beast” that he’s barely making enough money for gas, forced instead to take handouts from his lonely paramour, Constance (Diane Lane). (In an exchange typical of the film, Constance teasingly calls Baker “a hooker” as she hands him a wad of post-coital cash, to which Baker responds, “a hooker who can’t afford hooks.”)

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Complications arise when Baker gets a visit from Karen ( Anne Hathaway , vamping it up as a smoky-eyed femme fatale), his childhood sweetheart with whom he once fathered a child. Karen has since married into money via a comically loathsome sadist with underworld connections named Frank (Jason Clarke), and she makes Baker a desperate offer: Take Frank out on a fishing trip during their weekend getaway, ply him with booze and toss him to the sharks, and she’ll pay him $10 million in cash for his trouble.

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Baker ponders the proposition in between frequent trips to the isle’s lone bar and a few bouts of nude cliff diving. He initially turns her down, but he’s tempted by the possibility of leaving the island with its endlessly nosy locals, and he’s also haunted by memories of his son, whom he envisions in gauzy flashbacks while chugging rotgut rum out of a “World’s Greatest Dad” mug. More strangely, he’s also being relentlessly pursued all around town, “Better Off Dead”-style, by a mysterious, deeply ridiculous travelling salesman in a tight-fitting suit (Jeremy Strong).

Knowing Knight’s formidable resume as a writer (“Dirty Pretty Things,” “Eastern Promises”) and a director (2013’s masterfully resourceful Tom Hardy vehicle “Locke”), it’s initially puzzling to watch him wallow in such broad, clichéd character types, stilted dialogue, and showy stylistic flourishes here. As the film starts to show its hand, however, it becomes clear that this is all by design, building to a revelation that recontextualizes everything that’s come before. If you squint just right, you can see the deeper themes that Knight is toying with – questions of free will, and of the consolations of fiction – but never does he hit the intellectual or emotional pressure points that would make the whole ordeal worthwhile. As somber as it is unintentionally silly, “Serenity” doesn’t have a prayer.

Reviewed at Aviron Pictures screening room, Beverly Hills, January 23, 2019.

Production: An Aviron Pictures, Global Road Entertainment presentation in association with Starlings Entertainment of a Nebula Star, Shoebox Films production. Produced by Steven Knight, Greg Shapiro, Guy Heeley. Executive producers: Stuart Ford, Deborah Zipser, Karine Martin, David Lipman, Jeffrey Stenz, Carsten H. W. Lorenz, Paul Webster, David Dinerstein, Jason Resnick, William Sadleir.
Crew: Directed, written by Steven Knight. Camera (color): Jess Hall. Editor: Laura Jennings. Music: Benjamin Wallfisch.
With: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jason Clarke, Diane Lane, Djimon Hounsou, Jeremy Strong