Serenity

Baker Dill, a fishing boat captain, has settled into a solitary routine on Plymouth Island, a place reachable only by water. He runs charter trips for tourists with his mate Duke and spends his off hours chasing a tuna that keeps eluding him, while a relationship with a local woman, Constance, fills part of his evenings. His ex-wife Karen, now married to a wealthy and abusive man named Frank, tracks him down on the island and asks for his help. She wants Baker to take Frank out on the water and let him fall overboard, leaving him to the sharks, with a substantial sum offered in return. The request forces Baker to weigh the life he has built against the one he left behind.

Steven Knight directed from his own screenplay, his third feature behind the camera after Hummingbird and Locke. Matthew McConaughey plays Baker, Anne Hathaway is Karen, and Jason Clarke is Frank, with Diane Lane, Djimon Hounsou and Jeremy Strong in supporting roles. The production was a British one, mounted on a budget of about 25 million dollars.

Its commercial performance was weak: worldwide receipts came to roughly 15 million dollars against that budget. Audiences were unenthusiastic, with IMDb voters giving it 5.4 and TMDB users 5.5. Critics' notices were harsher still, averaging 4 out of 10 across 202 reviews, well below what viewers themselves thought of it.