9/10/2023 0 Comments Serenity movie twist![]() It's too bad Serenity couldn't have been a straight-up film noir from start to finish. The island scenery is appealing - with occasional lightning storms adding atmosphere to the bright island air - and Hathaway makes a great femme fatale. 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. (Only Hounsou somehow hangs on to his dignity.)Īnd 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. It becomes difficult to care about the characters, and the actors' oversized performances are somewhat silly. For one, the heightened performance style, presumably borrowed from classic movies like Double Indemnity, stops working as well within the new context. 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. 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. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails. The film goes in an unexpected direction, and while it works for a while, by the halfway point, it comes pretty badly unraveled. Characters drink frequently, sometimes to the point of extreme drunkenness. Language is also very strong, with frequent uses of "f-k," "s-t," and more. 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. Murder is discussed, and there's a disturbing mention of "little girls" working as prostitutes. A boy pulls a knife, a character is killed, and lots of blood is shown when a character's hand is broken. Domestic abuse is suggested: A man is shown taking off his belt next to his naked wife later, welts are seen on her back. Serenity opens with Baker Dill, a fishing-boat captain played by a sun-dried Matthew McConaughey. In the film, McConaughey plays a fisherman in a quiet resort town called Plymouth Island and gets caught up in a plot to knock off his ex-wife's abusive new husband. BOTTOM LINE A potentially enjoyable B movie, but the absurd plot twist brings it down to a Z. The result is one of the weirdest releases to roll off the assembly line in some time.Parents need to know that Serenity is a mature thriller/film noir starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway. From pretty much the moment of its release, the 2019 Matthew McConaughey vehicle Serenity became notorious for its absurd twist ending. Matthew McConaughey is a deep-sea fisherman and Anne Hathaway his sultry ex-wife, locked in a film noir plot on a tropical island - until director Steven Knight’s story takes an absolutely bizarre turn. As it is, “Serenity” isn’t wild enough to become more than a head-scratching oddity. It’s all pretty nutty, but I wish the film had actually gone farther - it might have hit a vein of really original weirdness. She owns a black cat that seems to have tremendous significance, until, I guess, it doesn’t. Hathaway is woefully underprepared to attempt a femme fatale, and Lane’s character appears set up for something that ended up on the cutting-room floor. The film sees fishing boat captain Baker Dill (McConaughey) approached by his desperate ex-wife, Karen (Hathaway), who offers him 10 million to carry out a murder plot against her new husband, Frank (Jason Clarke). Which is actually kind of weird once you find out the meta-story of what we’re watching, but whatever. Parents need to know that Serenity is a mature thriller/film noir starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway. What about the actors, you say? Surely they offer some distraction? McConaughey’s in he-man mode, and seems to enjoy getting his T-shirts wet and/or wriggling out of his pants.
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