serenity
Director: Steven knight (locke)
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Starring: matthew McConaughey, anne hathaway, Djimon Hounsou, and jason clarke
REVIEWER: lyall carter
★★
Baker's life changes forever when his ex - wife Karen tracks him down to ask him to kill her abusive husband.
From the trailer Serenity looks like some kind of femme fatale thriller. Now if thats what it truly was then perhaps the result may have turned out differently. Unfortunately, it doesn't.
Baker Dill is a fishing boat captain who leads tours off of the tranquil enclave of Plymouth Island. His peaceful life is soon shattered when his ex-wife Karen tracks him down. Desperate for help, Karen begs Baker to save her and their young son from her abusive husband. She wants him to take the brute out for a fishing excursion and then throw him overboard to the sharks. Thrust back into a life that he wanted to forget, Baker now finds himself struggling to choose between right and wrong.
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The story moves along at quite a good pace. Sure there are some bizarre things that appear out of place in the narrative but its not until the last act of the film that we discover what all these out of place incidents are leading to.
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Of course I can see what the film makers were attempting to do and they tried valiantly. But unfortunately it falls squarely on its face. The 'big reveal' is so fanciful that it doesn't work. The hard slog hasn't been put in to the story to make the 'big reveal' at all plausible even in the crazy world of Serenity.
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Unfortunately even the tremendous efforts of a wonderful cast lead by McConaughey and Hathaway can't save Serenity from itself.
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Its all going oh so well until being badly let down by its final act.