Tag Archives: Anne Hathaway

Serenity (2019): Baffling and Bizarre

Somewhere in the middle of the sea, Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey; Dallas Buyers Club) makes a meager living taking tourists out to fish tuna and sharks on his ramshackle boat. He lives an uneventful life save for a particular mammoth fish he has been chasing. One day his ex-wife Karen (Anne Hathaway; Les Misérables) abruptly arrives on the island and makes him an offer. She promises ten million dollars if he will take her current husband onto his boat and kill him. Her husband Miller (Jason Clarke; Zero Dark Thirty) has powerful ties, shady dealings, and has been physically abusing her. She sees this as her only way out and begs Dill to do this for their son who has now become a shut-in, spending his life behind his computer screen to avoid his abusive step-father. With a juicy premise written and directed by Steven Knight (Locke), Serenity initially seemed like a film to watch out for.

On the surface, Knight wants this to be a neo-noir. Every required trope of the film noir is present. Dill is a loner dedicated to his job, deliberately living in isolation, and Karen enters the film with the bleached blonde hair, barely opaque dress, and drawn out delivery of the classic femme fatale. The visuals are sun-soaked with raised contrast to emphasize the heightened reality of the story. While the script is intending to play with the established norms of the genre, it falls too snugly into the mold with characters lacking anything to distinguish themselves from a general archetype. Clarke’s villainous Miller is one-dimensional in his immediate and unmitigated loathsomeness and Hathaway’s Karen is little more than a plot device to force Dill out of his routine existence.

Despite the cast’s efforts, none of the characters are memorable.

Without spoiling anything, the film introduces a game-changing element midway through. This piece of info radically reframes the narrative and not to its benefit. It is a reveal that, while hinted at in the film’s narrative and stylistic choices, is ridiculous and renders much of the story pointless. Furthermore, it raises a myriad of questions about everything shown so far and the plausibility of every character’s actions. What should be a plot explanation becomes a source of numerous plot holes and immersion-breaking inconsistencies.

By the time the credits roll, we’re left in a state of disbelief and confusion. This isn’t a multilayered, reflexive narrative like Mulholland Drive, rather it’s an ill-conceived, poorly-executed idea that raises questions about film’s entire development process. Did no one raise any red flags after reading the script? Was the cast attached alone enough to override the glaring narrative flaws? This can’t have read well on paper so it boggles the mind that two Academy award winning actors and a talented writer-director would involve themselves in a project like this, particularly since this is an original idea. The combination of high powered talent both in front of and behind the camera along with a blatantly problematic narrative make Serenity one of the most baffling and bizarre releases in recent years.

2/5 stars.

Colossal (2017)

Nacho Vigalondo, the Spanish director who debuted with the similarly strange Timecrimes, is back with his highest profile release yet. Colossal stars Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada) as she plays against type as Gloria, an out-of-control alcoholic writer who returns to her small-town family home after being kicked out by her fed-up boyfriend. When back home she reunites with a childhood friend (Jason Sudeikis; We’re the Millers) and discovers that she is somehow controlling a giant Godzilla-like monster rampaging through South Korea.

The ridiculous setup brings lots of laughs. As Gloria discovers the rules of her powers, her drunken attempts to make sense of things are hilarious and Hathaway is clearly enjoying herself in the role. In her few moments of sobriety she fails miserably at explaining her situation to her friends. It isn’t until she starts making the monster dance or do other unusual movements that she is able to convince them. These scenes become comedic as the director crosscuts between her steps in a suburban playground and the masses of hysterical people fleeing city-wide destruction in Seoul. Then, when she is afraid of what might happen if others knew about her ability, she clumsily tries to hide the truth, as if anyone would believe her. When Gloria is still discovering the rules of her situation, the film is as funny as it is intriguing.

The discovery of Gloria’s powers is the best part of the film.

What’s surprising is how being the monster changes her. In her previous life, Gloria’s lack of responsibility allowed her to spiral out of control. She didn’t have any impact on others so she was left without a purpose until now. The ability to control a gigantic beast in another country becomes empowering. She can suddenly communicate with and affect the lives of millions and it changes the way she approaches her life. She starts to make better decisions (i.e. drinking less) and taking more responsibility. The use of the supernatural setup to grow her character is an unexpectedly compelling character arc.

It’s the film’s latter half that drags it down. Unsatisfied with the lighter tone, Vigalondo moves the film into much darker territory. Certain characters make abrupt turns into villainous roles and the sudden change is unearned. It ruins the fun of the wacky premise and doesn’t match the precedent set by the early parts of the movie. The director also adds unnecessary exposition. There are brief flashbacks throughout the film that hint at the cause of Gloria’s powers, but when their true nature is fully revealed it creates plot holes rather than filling them. The explanation doesn’t add gravity to the film and only distracts from the core: Gloria’s self-improvement. As strange as it seems, these changes stretch belief more than Anne Hathaway controlling a kaiju.

The most important factors in a film like this are consistency and commitment. Consistency in tone and commitment to the story. Far-fetched premises like Being John Malkovich, or any of Charlie Kaufman’s works for that matter, succeed because they have a clear emotional direction and stick to that angle. Other unusual takes on the kaiju genre like Bong Joon-ho’s The Host managed their lighter approach because they never deviated from their initial intent. Instead of continuing in the tone of Colossal’s successful early sections, Vigalondo loses focus and falls prey to damaging forced conflict and exposition.

3/5 stars.