Here is a story about guilt, loss, suffering and regret. Steven Knight – the writer and director of ‘Serenity’ – also shows, I think, great fluency with the concept of Jungian archetypes, so central to the writing of character in screenwriting. Consider this a modern-day rendition of Freud’s celebrated concept of ‘The Impossible Dream Wish’, which he expounds on so eminently in his celebrated book ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’. As a psychological story, I would say it’s one of the most audacious pieces of film-making that I’ve seen in quite some time. ‘Serenity’ a deeply spiritual and meditative piece of film-making. Sometimes immediately after the question… sometimes much later in the film… sometimes, even, maybe before the question got asked. But I’ll get to that a little bit later in the episode.Ī character asks questions… and the film gives us the answers. Whether it entirely works from a narrative perspective is, I think, up for debate. What’s really going on, here? Now, all of this really is preamble and setup for an extended climax sequence in ‘Serenity’ that I think is really quite unique and very, very ambitious. He’s there again… and then he’s not there again. Look at the way this scene constantly shifts between suggesting that Miller is there… and then not there. Look at the way this film is constantly playing with our perceptions and what we believe to be our understanding of the film. I was reminded more than once when I watched ‘Serenity’ of Christopher Smith’s 2009 film ‘ Triangle‘, which you might also find worth a look, a very interesting and unusual movie. Triangle (2009) by Christopher Smith is a related film, thematically and stylistically. And it’s something that I wish I saw a lot more of, in films being made today. When the film gives us an initial significance, an initial meaning for a line, and then later – through character exposition, or through visual storytelling – shows us an alternative, sometimes a much more significant, resonant meaning for that line that was spoken earlier on. Now another nice element to the writing in ‘Serenity’ is the double-meanings that are at play, in a lot of the dialogue that happens between characters. And yet, we still get the feeling that he’s ‘playing along’ with whatever’s happening.
Baker Dill – our deeply flawed protagonist here – seems to realise that something’s up, that something’s not quite right. We don’t quite know what it is yet, but Knight’s direction… the tone, the mood, the character interplay that we’re seeing early in the film are all giving us hints to that effect.īleary-eyed and existentially lost, witness a performance of uncompromising conviction.Īnd something striking, I think, about the film early on is that the mood that’s created points to something deeply sad and traumatic, something very melancholy that’s going on at the very heart of this film. There’s something very strange going on, on the island of Plymouth. This vein of visual storytelling runs deeply through the heart of ‘Serenity’. Take a look also at the that’s used in this film’s composition. And I like the way Steven Knight handles that task in ‘Serenity’.
Melding those two activities so that they’re both effective in a single scene is quite difficult. Either characters are giving important exposition verbally, or action is taking place. So often, I watch films with scenes where one of two things is happening. Have you ever had the feeling that everything around you… might be being orchestrated specifically for you? If so, then ‘Serenity’ might just be a movie that you find very interesting indeed. There are hints given that all may not quite be as it seems. Our protagonist’s state of mind is called into question early in ‘Serenity’. Everyone seems to know everything about Baker Dill. Today, I’ll be talking about Steven Knight’s 2019 movie ‘Serenity’, which tells the story of Baker Dill, a burnt-out fisherman living on an idyllic island, who’s obsessed with catching that one, special fish that just keeps eluding him. Hello – and welcome to ‘The Movie Affect’. We’re all lost souls, washed up on a lonely beach at the end of the world.
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