Not to be confused with the conclusion to Fox’s canceled Science-Fiction/Western  Firefly 2019’s Serenity’s  trailer would seemingly place it more in the noiror neo-noir  though the trailer itself isn’t very helpful for sussing out exactly what sort of film to expect.

Matthew McConaughey plays Baker Dill an Iraq war veteran turned charter boat owner/captain obsessed with an elusive monster sized tuna he had name ‘Justice’ and eludes his every attempt to land the fish. His life is upended with the arrival of his former lover Karen Zariakas, played by Anne Hathaway. The Iraq war changed Dill and destroyed their relationship and now she is married to an abusive, wanna be child-rapist, crime lord played by Jason Clarke. (It was quite the Jason Clare even at the theater last night in addition to Serenity  (2019), he was featured in two previews before the film.) Karen offers Baker 10 million dollars in cash if he will take her husband out on a day excursion and drop him in the ocean for the sharks. The rest of the island is made up of mostly stock characters, the loyal friend and second mate that often acts as Baker’s conscience, the barkeep that furthers plot and gives baker someone to at least partially open up to about his inner thoughts,. Rounding out the main speaking roles is Diane Lane playing Constance, Baker’s ‘sugar-momma’, keeping him in gas, expenses, and booze money in return for sex.

Much of this, including the central dramatic elements of the plot to murder the husband, is laid out plain in the feature’s trailer, painting a picture of a classic neo-noir  set-up, mysterious past, a femme fatale, and a moral chasm that threatens to destroy the protagonist and yet the film is, once it plays out in its entirety, is not a noir  but rather belongs to a far different genre.

To even tell you which genre it occupies by the conclusion is in itself a massive spoiler. About the half-way through the run time a minor mysterious character finally reaches Baker and reveals for Baker and the audience that this story is far stranger than either may have expected. Serenity (2019)with it unique twist is the sort of film that one expects to be produced on a shoestring and gathers ‘talk’ on the festival circuit before landing a distribution deal and playing in art house across the country. Instead we have a major studio production with bankable stars playing with the form and audience expectations. Directed and written by Steven Knight who gave us the usual feature Locke

a film that presented Tom Hardy driving at night for 90 minutes while juggling professional and emotional crises on telephone calls, Serenity (2019) is his most unusual movie.

Should you see it?

I really can’t say. I do know that it is failing fast the box office, probably because of that genre jump at the mid-point, and for many people that will be a deal breaker, but I enjoyed the film, it audacious swinging for the bleachers, and I am terribly happy to have seen it. If you plan on seeing avoid all comments in reviews, spoilers abound and more than the usual ‘who done it’ kind of early reveals, this movie is particularly damaged by spoilers.