Serenity (2019 film)
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''Serenity'' is a 2019 American mystery thriller film written, produced and directed by
Steven Knight Steven Knight (born 1 April 1959) is a British screenwriter, film director and film producer. Knight wrote the screenplays for the films ''Closed Circuit'', '' Dirty Pretty Things'', and ''Eastern Promises'', and also wrote and directed the f ...
. The film stars
Matthew McConaughey Matthew David McConaughey ( ; born November 4, 1969) is an American actor. He had his breakout role with a supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy '' Dazed and Confused'' (1993). After a number of supporting roles, his first succes ...
,
Anne Hathaway Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (born November 12, 1982) is an American actress. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Anne Hathaway, various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Awar ...
,
Diane Lane Diane Colleen Lane (born January 22, 1965) is an American actress. Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at age 14 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film ''A Little Romance''. The two films that could have catapulted her to star ...
,
Jason Clarke Jason Clarke (born 17 July 1969) is an Australian actor. He has appeared in many TV series, and is known for playing Tommy Caffee on the television series ''Brotherhood''. He has also appeared in many films, often as an antagonist. His film ro ...
,
Djimon Hounsou Djimon Gaston Hounsou (; ; born April 24, 1964) is a Beninese-American actor and model. He began his career appearing in music videos. He made his film debut in '' Without You I'm Nothing'' (1990) and earned widespread recognition for his role as ...
, and Jeremy Strong, and follows a fishing boat captain who is approached by his ex-wife to murder her abusive new husband. First announced in January 2017, principal photography on the film began on
Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
that July. ''Serenity'' was released in the United States on January 25, 2019, by
Aviron Pictures Aviron Pictures was an American film production and distribution company founded by William Sadleir, founder of Clarius Entertainment (which, as the company went inactive shortly after his departure, Aviron can be considered a successor of) and D ...
. It became a critical and commercial failure, after its distributor abruptly dropped its marketing efforts.


Plot

Baker Dill is a fishing boat captain living a quiet and sheltered life. He spends his days leading tours off a tranquil, tropical enclave called Plymouth Island and is obsessed with catching an evasive giant
yellowfin tuna The yellowfin tuna (''Thunnus albacares'') is a species of tuna found in pelagic waters of tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide. Yellowfin is often marketed as ahi, from the Hawaiian language, Hawaiian , a name also used there for the closel ...
whom he calls "Justice." One day, Dill's ex-wife Karen tracks him down and begs him to save her and their young son, Patrick, from her new, powerful but violently abusive, husband Frank. She offers Dill $10 million to murder him by throwing him overboard. She tells him that Frank will be arriving later in the week and that they have booked Dill for a fishing trip, the perfect opportunity for Dill to kill Frank. Torn between his conscience and his desire to help Karen, Dill is thrust back into a life he had tried to forget, as his world is plunged into a new reality that may not be all that it seems. It soon becomes apparent that Dill is a character in a computer game Patrick created, based on his father, John Mason, a U.S. Marine Corps Captain who was killed in
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
in 2006. Patrick had based the character on a memory of his father taking him fishing when he was three years old. When the widowed Karen remarried, Patrick introduced his mother and abusive step-father as new characters in the game, and changed Dill's task from catching tuna to murdering his step-father. Dill soon begins to realize that he and the other inhabitants of Plymouth Island are merely
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
characters created by his son. Nevertheless, he decides to go along with the objective of killing Frank. As Dill carries out the objective, Patrick summons up the courage to confront Frank in real life and stabs him in the chest with a knife that belonged to his father. Frank dies and Patrick is charged with murder, but he is released into his mother's custody while awaiting trial. He designs a new computer game in which he and his father are reunited.


Cast

Hathaway stated she was attracted to playing Karen because the character puts up a "mask" defined by the "male gaze", and also that she was not usually asked to play these kinds of characters.


Production

On January 28, 2017, it was announced that
Matthew McConaughey Matthew David McConaughey ( ; born November 4, 1969) is an American actor. He had his breakout role with a supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy '' Dazed and Confused'' (1993). After a number of supporting roles, his first succes ...
and
Anne Hathaway Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (born November 12, 1982) is an American actress. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Anne Hathaway, various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Awar ...
would star in a "sexy noir" film, ''Serenity,'' which would be directed by
Steven Knight Steven Knight (born 1 April 1959) is a British screenwriter, film director and film producer. Knight wrote the screenplays for the films ''Closed Circuit'', '' Dirty Pretty Things'', and ''Eastern Promises'', and also wrote and directed the f ...
from his own script. Greg Shapiro and Guy Heeley would produce the film through
IM Global IM Global was an American independent film and TV production company, The company was founded by Stuart Ford in April 2007 and operating in international film, television and music production, as well as sales and international distribution. The ...
, which also financed. The production received a local government rebate of 30 percent. McConaughey and Hathaway hadn't acted together since '' Interstellar''. On April 18,
Jason Clarke Jason Clarke (born 17 July 1969) is an Australian actor. He has appeared in many TV series, and is known for playing Tommy Caffee on the television series ''Brotherhood''. He has also appeared in many films, often as an antagonist. His film ro ...
joined the film to play Hathaway's character's wealthy, abusive husband. On May 10, 2017, more cast were announced, including
Uma Thurman Uma Karuna Thurman (born April 29, 1970) is an American actress and former model. She has performed in a variety of films, from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action films. Following her appearances on the December 1985 an ...
to play McConaughey's character's love interest (although Thurman soon removed herself from the production due to scheduling conflicts), and
Djimon Hounsou Djimon Gaston Hounsou (; ; born April 24, 1964) is a Beninese-American actor and model. He began his career appearing in music videos. He made his film debut in '' Without You I'm Nothing'' (1990) and earned widespread recognition for his role as ...
for an unspecified role. By July 2017, confirmed cast included McConaughey, Hathaway, Clarke, Hounsou,
Diane Lane Diane Colleen Lane (born January 22, 1965) is an American actress. Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at age 14 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film ''A Little Romance''. The two films that could have catapulted her to star ...
(replacing Thurman), and Jeremy Strong.
Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
on the film began late-July 2017 in
Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
. The film's production caused a scandal in the country, as Prime Minister
Pravind Jugnauth Pravind Kumar Jugnauth (born 25 December 1961) is a Mauritian politician serving as the prime minister of Mauritius since January 2017. Jugnauth has been the leader of the Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) party since April 2003. He has held a n ...
was accused of having misappropriated funds in excess of 200 million Mauritian rupees (~$6 million USD) to support the film.


Release

In February 2018,
Aviron Pictures Aviron Pictures was an American film production and distribution company founded by William Sadleir, founder of Clarius Entertainment (which, as the company went inactive shortly after his departure, Aviron can be considered a successor of) and D ...
acquired distribution rights to the film. The film was originally scheduled to be released on September 28, 2018, but was later pushed back to October 19, 2018, and then again to its actual release date: January 25, 2019. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 30, 2019. Following poor test screenings, the movie's distributor Aviron reportedly ceased its promotion and advertisement efforts. This came even after the film's stars agreed to a full campaign "including a junket and as many late-night and daytime talk shows as would have them." According to ''
Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. The site is updated several times a day, with ...
'', "maybe only nine spots aired in obscure locales and not in any time slots that would have helped create awareness for the film," and that the film's stars and director were misled about the amount of junket and late night interviews they would be able to participate in to promote the film. In response, Aviron said in a statement: "As much as we love this film and still hope it finds its audience, we tested and retested the film—with audiences and critics alike—and sadly, the data demonstrated that the film was not going to be able to perform at our initial expectations, so we adjusted our budget and marketing tactics accordingly." Some of the film's stars, such as McConaughey and Hathaway, were reportedly upset because Aviron pledged to put up a promotion and advertising campaign commensurate with a 2500-screen release. Scott Mendelson, a writer for ''Forbes'', defended Aviron's decision, stating "an original, R-rated, star-driven, sexually-explicit thriller from a small distributor, with poor reviews, a D+ from Cinemascore and (understandably) misleading marketing is the very definition of DOA", concluding "Aviron would merely have been burning money to spend any more on marketing Serenity than they already did".


Reception


Box office

''Serenity'' grossed $8.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $5.8 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $14.4 million, plus $1.4 million with home video sales, against a production budget of $25 million. In the United States and Canada, ''Serenity'' was released alongside ''
The Kid Who Would Be King ''The Kid Who Would Be King'' is a 2019 fantasy action-adventure film written and directed by Joe Cornish. A British/American venture, the film stars Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Tom Taylor, Dean Chaumoo, Rhianna Doris, Angus Imrie, Rebecca Fergu ...
'', and was initially projected to gross around $7 million from 2,561 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $1.6 million on its first day, including $250,000 from Thursday night previews, lowering estimates to $4 million. It ended up debuting to $4.4 million, finishing eighth, and marking the worst
wide release In the American motion picture industry, a wide release (short for nationwide release) is a film playing at the same time at cinemas in most markets across the country. This is in contrast to the formerly common practice of a roadshow theatrical re ...
opening of Hathaway's career. In its second weekend, the film fell 62% to $1.7 million, finishing 14th.


Critical response

On review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, and an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "A high-concept mystery with a twist, ''Serenity'' isn't what it appears to be at first—unfortunately, it's also not anywhere near as clever or entertaining as it thinks." On
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 37 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
gave the film an average grade of "D+" on an A+ to F scale, while those at
PostTrak PostTrak is a U.S.-based service that surveys film audiences for film studios. History The service conducts surveys in the top 20 markets in the U.S. and Canada with the use of polling cards and electronic kiosks. A PostTrak report for a film a ...
gave it an overall positive score of 56% and a recommend rating of 34%. Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com gave the film one star, calling it "terrible and insane" and writing: "Similar to ''
Collateral Beauty ''Collateral Beauty'' is a 2016 American fantasy drama film directed by David Frankel and written by Allan Loeb. The film stars an ensemble cast of Will Smith, Edward Norton, Keira Knightley, Michael Peña, Naomie Harris, Jacob Latimore, Kate Wi ...
'' and ''
The Book of Henry ''The Book of Henry'' is a 2017 American drama thriller film directed by Colin Trevorrow and written by Gregg Hurwitz. The film stars Naomi Watts, Jaeden Martell (then known as Jaeden Lieberher), Jacob Tremblay, Sarah Silverman, Lee Pace, Maddi ...
''—recent dramas with esteemed casts that went off the rails in enjoyably awful ways—''Serenity'' is the kind of bonkers movie that truly must be seen to be believed". ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
''s
Todd McCarthy Todd McCarthy (born February 16, 1950) is an American film critic and author. He wrote for ''Variety'' for 31 years as its chief film critic until 2010. In October of that year, he joined ''The Hollywood Reporter'', where he subsequently served ...
wrote, "Actors can usually have fun with such melodramatic roles, but Knight's stratagems serve to straitjacket the cast more than liberate it to diminishing returns as the climax remains an elusive vision on the horizon. Like a long fishing day without a bite, ''Serenity'' invites impatience rather than excited anticipation, and the eventual payoff provokes a big 'huh?'" Several reviewers, including ''Vanity Fair'' and ''The Independent'', criticized the
plot twist A plot twist is a literary technique that introduces a radical change in the direction or expected outcome of the plot in a work of fiction. When it happens near the end of a story, it is known as a twist or surprise ending. It may change the aud ...
. In his review for ''
The New York Observer ''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper printed from 1987 to 2016, when it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainmen ...
'',
Rex Reed Rex Taylor Reed (born October 2, 1938) is an American film critic, occasional actor, and television host. He writes the column "On the Town with Rex Reed" for ''The New York Observer''. Early life Reed was born on October 2, 1938, in Fort Wort ...
stated that "The new year is not even a month old, but a hunk of junk called ''Serenity'' already qualifies as the worst film of 2019" and that " the critics' screening I attended, the audience was reduced to hysterics". Michael O'Sullivan of ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' wrote that " e dialogue is bad, to the point of self-parody... The performances are cartoonish, especially that of Hathaway, whose
femme fatale A ''femme fatale'' ( or ; ), sometimes called a maneater or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype of ...
comes across as a kind of live-action
Jessica Rabbit Jessica Rabbit is a fictional character in the novel ''Who Censored Roger Rabbit?'' and its film adaptation, ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit''. She is depicted as Roger's human toon wife in various Roger Rabbit media. Jessica is renowned as one of the ...
from ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American live-action/animated comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely adapted by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman from Gary K. Wolf's 1 ...
''. And the scenario abounds with
cliché A cliché ( or ) is an element of an artistic work, saying, or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being weird or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was consi ...
and lazy shorthand." This view was shared by the ''New Yorker'' review, which cited the film as a mere collection of cliches that were assembled as a meta movie. In ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'',
Peter Travers Peter Joseph Travers (born ) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film interview prog ...
defined ''Serenity'' "like the bastard child of ''
Body Heat Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature ...
'' and ''
The Sixth Sense ''The Sixth Sense'' is a 1999 American psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It stars Bruce Willis as a child psychologist whose patient (Haley Joel Osment) claims he can see and talk to the dead. Released by ...
'', minus the heat and the sense." The movie ended up on several lists of worst movies of 2019, including ''Hollywood Reporter'', ''The A.V. Club'', ''Variety'', and ''CBS News''.


Accolades

The film was nominated for two
Golden Raspberry Awards The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
, Matthew McConaughey for Worst Actor and Anne Hathaway for Worst Actress (also for '' The Hustle'').


See also

* "
Playtest A playtest is the process by which a game designer tests a new game for bugs and design flaws before releasing it to market. Playtests can be run "open", "closed", "beta", or otherwise, and are very common with board games, collectible card games, ...
", an episode of the TV series ''
Black Mirror ''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Individual episodes explore a diversity of genres, but most are set in near-future dystopias with science fiction technology—a type of speculative fictio ...
'' with a similar premise. * "
Don't Worry Darling ''Don't Worry Darling'' is a 2022 American psychological thriller film directed by Olivia Wilde from a screenplay by Katie Silberman, based on a spec script by Carey Van Dyke, Shane Van Dyke, and Silberman. The film stars Florence Pugh, Harry ...
" a film with a similar premise.


References


External links

* * {{Steven Knight 2019 films 2019 thriller films American thriller films 2010s English-language films Films about video games Films shot in Mauritius Films directed by Steven Knight Films scored by Benjamin Wallfisch IM Global films American neo-noir films Films with screenplays by Steven Knight Films set in computers Films about simulated reality 2019 drama films 2010s American films