Film Review: Lawrence and Cooper can’t save ‘Serena’
At this exact moment in time, it’s hard to imagine a film starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence getting only a token theatrical release after debuting on VOD. Are there any rising stars hotter?
He starred in 2014’s highest grossing film (“American Sniper”); she starred in 2014’s second highest grossing film (“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1”); together they did two movies that were major critical and commercial hits (“Silver Linings Playbook,” “American Hustle”). Both have multiple Oscar nominations, and she won two years ago. (And, it must be noted, she’s not 25 yet.)
But now there is “Serena.” Perhaps we should say was instead of is: “Serena” was filmed before “American Hustle,” despite being released more than a year later. And, yes, it’s bad. Worse yet, it’s not bad in some grand, operatic way, which might have made it more fun (if for the wrong reasons). It’s simply not very interesting, verging on downright boring.
Cooper plays youngish logging entrepreneur George Pemberton, who, on an out-of-town trip (circa 1929) meets, and instantly goes gaga over, Serena (Lawrence). She’s beautiful, she’s tough, she knows the logging business just as well as he does. What’s not to love?
He brings her back to his North Carolina camp, where she quickly shows the workers who’s boss. Particularly smitten with her is a creepy ex-con (Rhys Ifans), who looks and acts as though his forebears partook a little too heartily from a very small gene pool.
She gets a colder welcome from George’s partner, Buchanan (David Dencik), who identifies her (correctly) as a threat to his position, both financially and emotionally. That is, we are coyly informed that Buchanan pines (as it were) for George, who seems never to have noticed.
Very little happens for more than half an hour, during which time a number of subplots are set in motion, some of which are later left hanging. Much of this feels like the result of desperate and repeated postproduction trimming. Meaningful glances are never explained; characters we barely know seem significant but aren’t. Serena, revealing her true ruthless nature, begins pushing George, suddenly revealed as a milquetoast, into worse and worse crimes.
“Serena” is based on a novel by Ron Rash, who may not be the source of the trouble, though it should be mentioned that “The World Made Straight,” another Rash adaptation came out a few months ago and was similarly lackluster. (Let’s pause to note a cosmic coincidence of great strangeness but no import: The name of the screenwriter of “Serena” is Christopher Kyle, which was, of course, also the name of the character Cooper was soon to play in “American Sniper.”)
In charge was Susanne Bier, the Danish director whose excellent “In a Better World” won the Foreign Film Oscar a few years ago. That movie made us identify and sympathize with its characters in ways “Serena” never does. While Serena heads toward lunacy, George is frequently absorbed in his quest to kill a panther, despite the dearth of same within a radius of several hundred miles.
Maybe the panther represents Serena’s wild freedom that refuses to be tamed, but then what does Serena’s pet eagle represent? And couldn’t both have been cut out of the film to diminish their unclear metaphorical weight, with nothing of value lost?
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ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).