Serenity

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.

Before you get mad about the score I'm giving this beautiful mess of a film, please keep in mind that I rate things on a scale of how entertained they kept me as opposed to how "good" they actually were.

That being said, this movie is not anywhere close to good. In fact, it may even be outright bad. But I'll be damned if there was a single moment in the film where I was less than entertained. I laughed more during the course of Serenity's runtime than I did at a good majority of last year's intentional comedies.

The performances were attempting to evoke a noir feel but came across more John Waters and the camp factor alone was a fascinating hybrid of cringy and hysterical. From Matthew McConaughey drinking during nearly every frame of the movie to Anne Hathaway saying "daddy" every other line, I won't forget their acting any time soon.

The plot is a convoluted mess and some of the turns it took won't be well-received but who cares? By the time the "twists" twisted, I was already so engrossed by this deranged piece of filmmaking that I didn't mind one bit.

Go with incredibly low expectations, try to lose yourself in the strange spell Serenity weaves, and you might just have as good a time as we did.

My wife and I watched this movie at home on BluRay from our public library. It is set either on an island off the Florida coast, or a nearby Caribbean Island where US money is used, but is actually filmed in Mauritius east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Lots of background music is Louisiana Cajun music, an interesting combination.

This movie is really interesting and good but has a somewhat low IMDb rating because many viewers expected a straightforward narrative, I suppose. The opening shot gives us a hint of what is happening, the face of a young teenage boy, then into his eye, which expands to a fishing boat in the ocean. The captain of that boat, the Serenity, is Matthew McConaughey as Baker Dill.

The details can be gleaned by reading any of several user reviews with "Spoilers", suffice to say it has elements that reminded me of movies like "Frequency", "Inception", and "The Matrix." It is woven together well as a young boy, a genius in computer games, tries to deal with an abusive stepfather. But not everything is as we see it.

Both of us enjoyed the movie. I particularly like McConaughey and he is really good in this role.

I agree with the previous reviewers: until the twist occurs the movie does well. McConaughey is always great to watch and is very convincing. The "Old man and the sea" premise is also passable, as is Anne Hathaway. But after the twist the movie becomes a mess. The result is mediocre at best. Not a good drama, not a good thriller, and so-so mystery/fantasy. I only recommend it to the fans of Matthew McConaughey, otherwise, save your time.

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.