There was a ten-year span when it seemed liked Matthew McConaughey had resigned himself to romantic comedies. To be fair, he was never really the problem with any of them. He is an actor that possesses a screen persona like no other. Then famously, he had a landmark year working with a handful of incredible directors and capping off that run with an Academy Award win for Dallas Buyer’s Club.
In the blink of an eye, after a couple years of interesting work, he fell back into the same rut where his taste in material severed his talents as an actor. On paper teaming with the writer and director of Locke seemed like a great career move. He gave Tom Hardy one of his finest performances all while stuck in a car for 90 minutes.
So, what are we to make of Steven Knight’s newest film, Serenity? It starts on a compelling enough note following McConaughey playing a rugged deep-sea fishing captain who is enacting his own version of The Old Man and the Sea. McConaughey was born to play a part like Baker Dill, this is an alias so it isn’t quite as ridiculous as it could’ve been. These early scenes set the stage like this will be a pretty straight down the middle interior thriller, where it will go we aren’t sure but it will center on Baker.
The interplay between McConaughey and his first mate played by Djimon Hounsou is quite strong. These are two actors who can bring a lot to material that isn’t really there on the surface. When ashore, Baker falls into bed with Diane Lane’s Constance. We get the sense that they are familiar, but more like paramours.
The intrigue around Baker grows until the Anne Hathaway character, Karen, shows up to proposition Baker. They slowly reveal that they are ex husband and wife and that she needs Baker to murder her current husband Frank (Jason Clarke).
To go much further would reveal the true twists and turns of this movie. And, let me tell you something, this movie goes into absolute la la land. Sitting in the theatre I kept saying to myself, “No, that can’t really be what they are doing?”
Steven Knight is a more than capable writer, so even as the plot is flying off the rails, he is able to keep everything grounded in some semblance of reality. The second half, while the mysteries are being drawn out, still moves briskly. Much of the heavy lifting for the film is done by the more than capable cast. Between the top four billed cast members, McConaughey, Hathaway, Lane, and Hounsou, there have a combined six Oscar nominations and two wins. McConaughey is in 90% of the film, and for as flimsy as the character is, he is giving a really solid performance. Roles like this remind you that he is a true letter- Movie Star.
Much of the problem rests in the final climax. By the time the ending comes along, Knight’s script has fully pulled the rug out from the narrative stakes of the film, which leaves all the moral quandaries feeling wholly empty.
Yet, as much as the film doesn’t work, the central thesis is an interesting grain of an idea. Knight, is asking questions about fate, creation, and our relationship to both. But, having a good idea is only one piece of a much larger puzzle when it comes to film.
January has always been a dumping ground for studios. Toss the films that you aren’t particularly proud of into the landscape of Oscar nominations, Golden Globes, and the leftover holiday market and your undesirables hopefully fade away. I have to imagination at some point, someone, somewhere, thought this movie had some legs. The cast is an awards magnet and the writer director was fresh off making a critically lauded drama showcase for Tom Hardy. Yet, here Serenity is, washed up on shore like a petrified piece of drift wood that is quickly decomposing.