Review: Witness the insanity of ‘Serenity’ now before someone spoils it for you

Every January film studios unceremoniously clean house, Marie Kondo-ing their coffers to dump out films that they have little faith in, hoping that audiences will be too distracted by the ongoing Oscar season buzz to notice how little fanfare these titles receive.

The signs were all there that Serenity was a stinker — the film’s release was pushed back three separate times over the past year, until finally landing in this January dead zone. Even with an all-star cast including Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Diane Lane, there must have been a reason that Serenity wasn’t hitting the multiplex at any other time of the year. After sitting through this perplexing and insane little movie, the studio’s hesitation makes perfect sense — this is one of the craziest studio releases in years, the genuine kind of WTF movie that you simply have to see to believe.

The plot is simple enough. Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey) is a fisherman on a picturesque island, who is driven by visions he can’t explain to hunt down a particularly large tuna (symbolically called “Justice”) that keeps escaping his grasp. He spends his time hanging out in the local bar while sleeping with a married woman (Diane Lane) for money (a subplot that’s even creepier once the whole puzzle box of a movie is finally explained). In a classic film noir setup, Baker’s ex-wife Karen (Anne Hathaway) suddenly appears on the island with a proposition — she wants Baker to kill her current husband Frank (Jason Clarke), who is physically abusive to her and her teenage son from her marriage with Baker (Rafael Sayegh).

With beautiful people scheming on a stunning island, Serenity could have been an atmospheric thriller, but the film’s whole construction isn’t really interested in any of that. Without ruining the “surprise,” things on the island are not as they appear. Dill is pursued relentlessly by a mysterious man named Reid Miller (Jeremy Strong), who chases Dill around the island before finally explaining the “rules” of the island they are all inhabiting. Meanwhile, Dill and his off-island son are experiencing a strange connection — Dill can hear his son speaking in his head, and in an E.T. – like scenario, is even physically affected by what his son experiences.

Even knowing that there is a twist coming takes something away from this film (sorry!) It’s easy to understand why the initial reviews of the film were so over the top, lauding the “insane” and “WTF” ending — if you stroll into this movie thinking it’s a standard thriller, you’re going to be taken aback by how weird it gets. But if you know something is coming and pay attention to the film’s construction, the “clues” are all in such plain sight that it’s almost laughable.

Serenity was written, directed, and produced by Steven Knight, who’s written crackling crime dramas like Eastern Promises, and directed tense and compact films like Locke, an entire film set in a car with Tom Hardy, so the pedigree is there. The insane choices the film takes are completely intentional, and all work towards that puzzle box structure that I am so valiantly struggling not to reveal.

In many ways, the very construction of the film makes it nearly impossible to criticize. Even the very stilted acting across the board can be easily explained away by the film’s twist, which sheds light on why all of the main characters act so strangely throughout the film (it never really explains why our hero is essentially a gigolo though — if anything, it makes that revelation much more disturbing).

Beneath all the onion-like layers of the ridiculous plot, Serenity has some things going for it. This is a film that tries to tackle a major issue like domestic abuse, and view it from an angle we’re not used to seeing much in film. One might say that the “aha!” moment of the film takes the focus of that domestic drama away from the film, but it feels like Knight is truly trying to make a point about the ramifications of the cycle of abuse, and how it haunts and affects all of those in its sphere.

You have to respect the sheer audacity of a film like Serenity. It has some of the biggest movie stars of the day in a film that feels like a direct-to-video release from the 90’s that you would rent simply because it featured some recognizable faces on the box art. It’s completely over-the-top, and worst of all, if you’re paying even the slightest bit of attention (and I saw this at an 11:00 pm screening), then the main “mystery” basically presents itself right out of the gate.

While the film’s whole conceit may not really work, Serenity is still a lot of fun, and McConaughey and Hathaway really commit to the film noir stereotypes they’re embodying, stilted acting and all. Once Serenity hits Netlfix, people are going to lose their minds over this one. Let the memes begin!

Serenity is in theatres now.