This particular fantasy relies on simple but effective character tropes culled from film noir, classic literature and other well-known dramatic traditions. Rather, it’s a thought experiment about the ways in which trauma affects consciousness and the coping mechanism of elaborate fantasies. If you haven’t surmised by now, “Serenity” is a game, but who is in control? It could be a complex metaphor for how we deal with fate and personal choices, but that’s not what it’s about. Of all the rum joints in all the towns in all the world. So it goes, over and over, Baker dutifully pursuing his quest, until a femme fatale (Anne Hathaway) walks out of his past and into the bar, asking him to kill her husband. Every day, a suited and spectacled salesman (Jeremy Strong) pursues him across the island. Every day, he gets gossip and news from the bartender and tackle shop owner. Every day, he visits his lover, Constance (Diane Lane), grabs a drink at the local watering hole filled with salty characters, and fires his first mate (Djimon Hounsou). Every day, he tries to catch the fish, doesn’t, and recalibrates his strategy. The hero, Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey), is on a mission to catch a fish - a very large tuna he’s dubbed Justice. The inexplicable nature of the place belies its origins. You may spend much of the film wondering just where in the world they are (the film was shot on the island of Mauritius), but that’s kind of the point. Churches dot the hills while fishermen pay tribute to the Hindu goddess Kali before their voyages at sea. American money is exchanged, but the cars sport European plates. “Serenity” takes place on a bizarre island known as “Plymouth.” The people speak English speckled with French the landscape is tropical but epic in scope. The camera dives into the iris of a brown eye and into another world, where a fishing boat traverses turquoise blue waters. Every film should tell you what it’s about within the first couple of minutes, and Steven Knight’s “Serenity,” a curious saltwater-sanded puzzle of a film, does just that.
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