BEFORE: Djimon Hounsou carries over from "Charlie's Angels" for the last time in this chain, and in a neat bit of planning, the last of 5 films with him is also the first of SIX films with McConaughey - damn, it feels like I just did a McConaughey chain last year (2 here and 3 there, for a total of 5) - probably because I did - but that's how fast these things accumulate if you're not careful.
I also seem to be on a bit of a nautical/beach theme starting today, which is fine for summer, lots of outdoor summer water-adjacent activities are now available, at least in some areas, if it's not too freaking hot. Anything nautical in the "This Day in History" file? July 8, 1497 - Vasco de Gama set sail on the first direct European voyage to India. July 8, 1760 - British forces defeated French forces in the last naval battle in New France. July 8, 1879 - The USS Jeannette departed San Francisco carrying an ill-fated expedition to the North Pole. (well, if it was ill-fated, then why did they go?). July 8, 1976 - Ellen MacArthur, successful solo long-distance yachtswoman was born, and on July 8, 2012, actor Ernest Borgnine, who appeared in "The Poseidon Adventure", died. You know, I really should do this sort of thing more often, it's fascinating what can tie in with my movie choices.
But speaking of expeditions, I've found a path that will get me from "Wonder Woman '84" to the start of my October horror film chain. It's not perfect, and it's a bit shorter than I would have liked, but maybe I can beef it up a bit along the way. For right now, it's good to know that it's THERE, and even though it uses a couple films I might normally save for February, it's got two films on the "back to school" topic, and it includes some recent additions that I want to watch, like "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood", "Eurovision Song Contest" and the re-scheduled "Jay and Silent Bob Reboot".
What I have to do now is figure out if there's a similar but slightly different path that I might prefer, and get all these films in order on a worksheet so I can get an accurate count. This way I can confirm that taking a few weeks off in August/September is the right move, and I'll know how many slots will be left for November/December. Also I want to make sure I'm not missing something that I really wanted to get to before Movie Year 12 is over. Once that's done I can really rest easy, and sort of coast to the end of the year.
THE PLOT: A fishing boat captain juggles facing his mysterious past and finding himself ensnared in a reality where nothing is what it seems.
AFTER: Another reminder that I'm still in my "Year of Weird Movies", and I'm pretty sure this one qualifies. Nobody's really talking about this one (now on AmazonPrime and cable On Demand) and I wondered why - did this one fly below the radar or are people doing their part to not spoil the ending? Maybe both? Anyway, let me go ahead and issue a rare (for me) SPOILER ALERT just in case I write something that gives too much away, I'll try not to.
Baker Dill (not his real name, thankfully) is a fishing boat captain who takes rich tourists out to catch large game fish, only he often can't resist trying to reel in the big catch himself, and then spends his nights fishing to earn more money, so when does he sleep? He clearly believes in the 3 F's - Fishing, Fighting with his unsatisfied customers, and Fooling around with his neighbor Constance, who keeps losing her cat. Or is that just to get Baker to keep finding and returning it? His arch nemesis is a giant tuna who he's caught on the line many times, but keeps escaping.
Into this world steps his ex-wife, who's following up a lead where an ex-classmate went fishing on vacation, and came home with a photo that appeared to show her ex-husband in the background. She's flown to Plymouth Island on vacation, and wants to hire Baker (formerly John) to take her current abusive husband out fishing, and then, well, "take him out". Lots of things can happen on a fishing boat, a man could get caught in a line and dragged overboard, could get eaten by a shark, fall backwards on to a knife or giant hook, you get the idea. She's offering Baker ten million dollars and the assurance that she and Baker's son will now be free from living with this dangerous man.
As ridiculous as this sounds, this is the part of the movie that makes the most sense. There are small indications along the way that something else is going on, beyond the obvious. Baker goes swimming in the buff and seems to encounter a vision of his son, Patrick, while underwater. His ex claims that when Baker talks, his son can hear what he says, even though he's thousands of miles away. And the local DJ has an uncanny knack for saying things that are VERY relevant to Baker's moral dilemmas. Then a geeky guy shows up out of nowhere, and after several attempts to track Baker down between his fishing trips, offers him a super high-tech fish finder at no cost, he just has to agree to use it to find that really big tuna he's been chasing.
So what the heck is going on here? I've seen enough episodes of "The Twilight Zone" to anticipate some kind of reveal when things start to seem weird like this. I ran down a list of the most commonly used weird scenarios - this is all a dream, everybody's dead and this is heaven/hell, or this is a story that somebody is writing and it's all going to end with a book closing or an author crumbling up a piece of paper. Ehhh, it's none of those but you can't blame me for trying them out. To be fair, the reveal is something of an original idea, but once you know it, if you go back and think about the film from the beginning, there are a fair amount of things that don't make any sense.
I'll try to keep my NITPICK POINTS to a minimum, so I don't give it away, and to a certain degree the reveal kind of negates some of them, but wouldn't you think that Karen's new husband would at least know what her ex-husband looked like? I mean, when you marry someone who's been married before, you'd probably encounter some old family photos, or recognize a guy who looks quite a bit like your stepson. Maybe's Frank's never looked into it, he's so busy abusing Karen that he's never taken the time, but that seems like a bit of a stretch.
Another NITPICK POINT, who was watching teenage Patrick while his mother and step-father were on vacation? I guess this one doesn't really matter either, it's just another one of those things that clues you in that something's maybe a little "off".
Even if you feel a little disappointed in the reveal, or find that it stretches your belief system just a bit too far, there's still something to appreciate here. As we all learned in "The Old Man and the Sea", a giant nemesis fish is more than just a fish, it's a symbol. It's the unattainable goal, the thing we can chase after but never quite get, but it also represents the job, the thing you do day in and day out. Maybe your job is frustrating and you want to do something different with your life, but what? Are you going to negate the chain of events that brought you where you are, with your own boat and a few good friends and somebody who lets you find her kitty at night when you get lonely, just so you can go somewhere else and do something different?
Or maybe you feel like the universe brought you to where you are, got you into a certain line of work for a reason. The debate here is - to what extent do we control our own reality, or does our reality control us? Did we put ourselves on this career or relationship path, or did fate/karma/destiny play a hand. And if so, does knowing that something put you on this path make it feel better or worse? Does that make you want to stay on it, or rebel against that force and try something new, just to prove that you can? I don't have any conclusive answer here, it's just something to think about.
Also starring Matthew McConaughey (last seen in "Between Two Ferns: The Movie"), Anne Hathaway (last seen in "The Last Thing He Wanted"), Diane Lane (last seen in "Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House"), Jason Clarke (last seen in "First Man"), Jeremy Strong (last seen in "Selma"), Charlotte Butler, David Butler, Rafael Sayegh, Michael Richard, Robert Hobbs (last seen in "Chappie"), Kenneth Fok (last seen in "Eye in the Sky), Garion Dowds, John Whiteley, with the voice of Redd Pepper.
RATING: 4 out of 10 buckets of chum
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