Serenity

     Serenity is directed by Steven Knight (Locke) and stars Matthew McConaughey (Mud), Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries), and Jason Clarke (Terminator: Genesys). It tells the story of Baker Dill, a fisherman on Plymouth island whose life is upended when his ex-wife tracks him down to help her complete a dark mission.

     Steven Knight has had his fair share of ups and downs through his career. He is best known as a writer for Peaky Blinders and Eastern Promises but has dabbled in directing. The only thing I knew about the movie going in was a poster I saw in December that had McConaughey and Hathaway front and center. That billing alone was enough to peak my interest.

     Serenity is a mess, all the way down to the editing and script. I usually only notice editing when it is bad, and I definitely noticed the editing in this movie. Characters jumped from place to place with little regard to the actual geography of the island. Night turned to morning and back again with characters remaining in the same scene. A cool camera trick where the camera panned around the actor Matrix-esque but it had little to do with any actually narrative structure.

     The story and dialogue are laughable at best. I understand the purpose of some of the lines of dialogue, but they are incredibly cringe worthy and could have been better written in order to get the same point across. I can only handle so much of Anne Hathaway saying “Daddy” over and over again.

     Around three-fourths of the way into the movie, a narrative twist occurs. While some may argue the twist helps to explain some of the issues from the beginning of the movie, I would argue it not only does nothing to explain away many of the problem, but only further adds to the problems to the movie. Even the end of the movie left me cold, rather than the emotional beat that was presumably hoped for.

     Not every movie can be great. Serenity proves that some are pretty bad. Bad enough to be seared into my mind for quite a long time. The type of movie that the longer you sit with, the more you dislike.

When should you see it? Give it 5 minutes