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Or the fact that Diane Lane shows up in just two scenes as a woman Dill sleeps with for cash, and why on earth would a character who looks like Diane Lane ever need to pay for sex? Or the fact that Dill seems to have a telepathic connection with his son, who we often see parked in front of a computer screen, writing code. Serenity plays these notes with verve so what, you might ask, is up with its terrible reputation? Well, it has something to do with the prim, proper man in a suit (Jeremy Strong) following Dill around, desperate to talk to him about “the rules”.
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#Serenity film 2019 movie#
It’s built on simple pleasures: aqua blue seas, white sand, half-clothed movie stars and the schadenfreude of watching one man’s paradise turn into a hell on earth. The Florida noir is a hallowed genre with entries like Key Largo, Night Moves, Body Heat and Wild Things. It’s a fair deal: she gets her freedom, and Dill gets $10m, which will mean he can quit taking drunken tourists out sport-fishing and spend all his time searching for his white whale, er, tuna. Dill gets diverted when his ex-wife (Hathaway) walks into his life with a proposition to kill her new husband (Jason Clarke), a high-income, low-class brute who abuses her and terrifies the child she had with Dill. It’s impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. No, it’s not a documentary about what the real McConaughey does on vacation, but it might as well be. Set on the fictitious island of Plymouth, it starts off as a lean film noir centering on Baker Dill, a frequently shirtless, profoundly tanned fishing boat captain who is almost religiously obsessed with a single quest: catching a massive tuna that seems to be always hanging around his boat.
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This is a film operating on a wavelength all its own.
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The first warning sign came when the film, slated for an awards-season release date, was quietly pushed to January, often a sign that the studio thinks it has a bomb on its hands.Īnd yes, it’s easy to see why there would be skepticism about Serenity’s ability to connect with the public. Knight clearly has talent to spare, and with Oscar winners McConaughey and Anne Hathaway on board, expectations for Serenity were high. It was written and directed by Steven Knight, who created TV’s Peaky Blinders, and wrote and directed 2013’s Locke, a tense little drama starring Tom Hardy and set entirely in a car that has achieved a minor following. Serenity arrived with an impressive pedigree.
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