Serenity

The second movie in my Thursday night double feature was Serenity which looked like another intriguing psychological thriller.  It wasn't.  Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey) is a down on his luck Iraq War veteran who makes his living taking tourists out on his fishing boat on an island off the coast of Florida.  He is obsessed with catching an elusive fish which sometimes causes problems with his paying customers.  He is often reduced to taking money from Constance (Diane Lane), his sometime lover, to pay for the gas to run his boat and must fire his first mate Duke (Djimon Hounsou) because he can't pay him.  Things change when Baker's ex-wife Karen (Anne Hathaway) approaches him to murder her abusive husband Frank (Jason Clarke) at sea for $10 million.  He initially refuses but begins to consider the offer for the sake of his son Patrick (Rafael Sayegh) who lives with Karen and Frank.  A mysterious businessman in a suit (Jeremy Strong), who has been stalking Baker, causes him to question his reality when he finally does make contact.  I have heard some critics refer to this movie as the worst of 2019 but they have clearly not seen Replicas which gets my vote for that dubious honor.  Like Replicas, this movie has an interesting concept, which could have been a really atmospheric noir thriller, but it is derailed by its execution and a completely implausible plot twist that I saw coming well before it was revealed.  Even though it is ridiculous and full of holes, this plot twist could have provided an interesting exploration of free will but, instead, we get McConaughey emoting in a sugarcane field.  Speaking of which, there is a lot of cringe-worthy dialogue (Hathaway refers to Clarke as "Daddy" more times than I could count) and most of the characters come across as wooden caricatures rather than actual people.  The only reason that it ranks slightly above Replicas is because of the cinematography.  Beautiful shots of ocean waves and sunsets are nicer to look at than sub-par CGI shots of robots any day!  Avoid both of these movies!