Film review: ‘Serenity’

There are many bad-bad movies and more than a few good-good movies. But from time to time there arises that rarer bird: the good-bad movie.

For example, from “The Devil’s Advocate” to “The Lake House,” Keanu Reeves has a shadow career of can’t-turn-away cockamamie. Starting, perhaps, with the amiable 2005 disaster “Sahara” and continuing to the new release “Serenity,” Matthew McConaughey is taking his shot at good-bad immortality.

As Baker Dill, a part-time fisherman and full-time lush, McConaughey’s dew point has never been higher. His obsession is a metaphor in the shape of an enormous tuna he has named Justice. Sample dialogue as he sets sail: “All right Kali, give me that damn fish.”

On shore, he enjoys afternoon assignations with Constance (Diane Lane), who spends 100 percent of her time writhing around with Baker beneath some mosquito netting or looking out through the slats of her window while he’s busying himself on his boat.

Baker and Constance are residents of Plymouth Island, a tropical paradise offshore from… well it’s hard to say where. Plymouth sits alone on the map, though you can charter a plane in from Miami. Opinions vary on McConaughey’s acting chops but, possibly due to a method approach to his recent Wild Turkey bourbon ad campaign, he can convince you he’s downed too much alcohol to remember how he got ashore.

The usual routine ends when Baker’s ex-wife Karen (Anne Hathaway) steps out of the past into the only bar in Plymouth. Hathaway’s hair has been tinted blonde to make her more of a paint-by-the-numbers femme fatale. She unceremoniously offers Baker $10 million in cash to kill her current husband (it’s unclear where exactly she might have packed the dough - though her luggage does include a black trench coat that’s rather incongruous for the tropics).

Her hubby Frank (Jason Clarke) is a brutalist who puts on reading glasses to inspect his wife’s skin for imperfections. She describes his mien as “richer, bigger, drunker and angrier” (and you could add sweatier as he lumbers into frame). Baker takes him fishing and Frank seems to have a Boston accent that really only comes out when he’s got a shaaaaaark on the line.

One rainy night, Karen visits our hero on the boat and things go as you would expect. After a lusty 30 seconds, they come to an agreement on how to off Frank. Then they tenderly review their more romantic early years - Karen quotes the emotional moment Baker told her, “With this stupid ring, I thee wed.”

As subtly indicated by the large World’s Greatest Dad mug he fills with rum morning and night, Baker and Karen have a child on the mainland, Patrick (Rafael Sayegh). We get shots of the young man tapping away on his computer, coding a homemade fishing game. Baker tries to communicate with the lad telepathically, which must be easier than getting visitation rights in court….Oh, and it should be noted that the telepathy occurs when Baker goes nude cliff diving and catches images of his kid in the crystalline depths.

Director Steven Knight plays up the repetitiveness of life on Plymouth, where everyday interactions have the unsettling sameness of relationships in “The Truman Show.” And Baker’s 5 a.m. wakeup calls to a cheerful radio remind one of the same trope in “Groundhog Day.”

These referential hints are dropped throughout “Serenity” with the finesse of a bag of hammers hitting the floor. The admirably ludicrous finale reveals the grand twist via a Shakespeare misquote sure to induce belly-laughs. The film is a bunch of A-list actors panting their way through some D-list writing… and its artistic merit comes very close to the point in the circle where terrible crosses back over to great.