Sérénité

Just finished watching this with my wife. I'd seen the trailer and it looked good... and it was, until about halfway through the movie where, in my opinion, it went off the rails with a stupid plot twist. I understood the twist and everything that transpired after, but felt it unnecessary and worse, that the movie would have been better without it, sticking to it's original setup. The whole landscape of the film changes after that twist and not for the better - it feels like it exists just so it can exist, and not for the betterment of the story.

Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey) is a fishing boat captain obsessed with catching one particular tuna fish. He pushes aside his own tour customer to catch the fish and his assistant Duke (Djimon Hounsou) quits. Constance (Diane Lane) gives him money in exchange for sex. His ex-wife Karen (Anne Hathaway) tracks him down despite his fake identity. She is willing to pay him $10 million to kill her husband Frank Zariakas (Jason Clarke) who abuses her and Baker's son Patrick.

The first half seems to be trying for Hitchcock but various mannerisms and unreality kept dragging it down. One could see the changes needed to keep this on track better. Then the skinny guy shows up with the suitcase. The story takes a left turn. I'm still no in love with the twist. I do appreciate that it made the movie more cohesive. This is not the best. I'd rather have it go straight but I'm willing to give the twist some leeway.

I really enjoyed the plot line to this movie as well as being on point with the message it delivered, different to the usual Hollywood marvel movies which seems to be on a production line or the movies with an agenda. This is well worth a watch.

I gave it a 5 just because of Matthew. The beginning was kinda slow and I was ready to go to bed and then it became interesting, even thrilling. A moral dilemma, is it ok to do somethin wrong for a good cause? My kindda movie! And just when I was ready for a good thriller, a twist came and ruined it. The idea would be ok if the whole movie went a bit deeper in characterisation and inner feelings of protagonist. This way movie is mish mash of everything and in the end turned out to nothing. Disappointment.

When I first saw the trailer for Serenity back in summer 2018 I was certainly intrigued. Then it was pushed back many months from its original release date but I still looked forward to finally seeing the movie. Well I can say now that after some thought, I enjoyed the film. It was spoiled for me mildly in the sense that I knew an off the wall twist was in the cards. Boy was that twist a wild one.

Serenity starts out a little wonky with the first 20 minutes or so having some unintentional laugh out loud moments. However once it gets going it becomes very intriguing and had me fully engaged. When the left field insane twist is revealed, I was impressed by the sheer nerve of it all. Sure it's beyond over the top, but having the audacity to do it is a thing to admire.

The acting is both good and bad at times. The whole movie always just feels a little off and bizarre, which I somewhat appreciate. Make no mistake about it though this work is not a masterpiece. Serenity has its share of faults and the ending could very well be one of them in some ways. Besides that it's also a messy script with some big head scratchers and horrible lines.

With that being said we need more wide release movies with quality actors taking chances and giving us something original. In a way the film is throwback to the 70's and 80's when we saw wide released movies taking experimental chances.

Go give it a watch, love it or hate I think this work is something any true film fan will tip their cap to.