SERENA
DIRECTOR: Susanne Bier
CAST: Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Rhys Ifans, Toby Jones, David Dencik, Sean Harris and Ana Ulara
CLASSIFICATION: 16 SV
RUNNING TIME: 109 minutes
RATING: **
When frequent collaborators Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper signed on to the indie movie Serena, they hadn’t yet become two of America’s most recognisable actors, much less Academy Award contenders. You would think the rising profiles of the movie’s stars would be a huge boon for Susanne Bier’s dark drama. But you’d be wrong.
The pair’s reputations began to grow while they were filming Serena in 2012 – just before Silver Linings Playbook was hitting theatres – and the attention meant that expectations for the movie ballooned. It took Bier a long time – about 18 months – to assemble the footage for the adaptation of Ron Rash’s 2008 novel, and the final result is a real slog.
The film is set during the Great Depression around the Smoky Mountains, where George Pemberton (Cooper) runs a timber enterprise with hopes of expanding his business to South America. But first he has to sort though some complications. Given the era, the bank isn’t doling out dollars the way it used to. And then there’s the resistance from some of George’s neighbours in North Carolina. A small but vocal group wants the surrounding mountains to be a national park rather than the treeless wasteland it’s becoming.
In the midst of all this, George leaves for a holiday and returns with a young bride, Serena (Lawrence).
Serena’s late father was also a logging man, and she has some expertise to share, which isn’t welcomed by George’s right-hand man, Buchanan (Dencik). But as Serena explains: “I didn’t come to Carolina to do needlepoint.” She’s a real spitfire, which also means she isn’t fazed by the attention of a quiet, tattooed ex-con who claims to be clairvoyant (Ifans).
Plotwise, Serena is excessively eventful. There are murders and logging accidents, knife fights, panther hunts, nightmarish back stories and a baby born out of wedlock, to throw out a mere sampling. But none of these episodes carries much weight. The events never appear to be working towards any goal or expressing a worthwhile message. With some admittedly well-drawn atmospherics, including shots of misty mountaintops and the sounds of bluegrass music, the movie feels a bit like a logging version of There Will Be Blood, except that the characters in this study aren’t really worth consideration.
Cooper and Lawrence do their best, but the material works against them, from the over-wrought dialogue to the never-ending plot twists in place of character development. And why should they have bothered when the editing is so bizarre? Establishing shots – those important moments that tell an audience that a scene has shifted to a different time or place – have been cast aside, making for confusing transitions. Another odd choice: when George first sees Serena, she’s astride a galloping horse, bouncing abundantly in slow-mo. This is the stuff of parodies, not serious dramas.
With lesser stars in the lead roles, Serena would have disappeared. Instead, the movie’s biggest selling point is its most lamentable downfall. It’s painful to watch all that talent get wasted.
The Washington Post
If you liked Public Enemies or Ask the Dust, you will like this.