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After earning back-to-back Oscar nods for working together on Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence appeared to be a match made in casting heaven. But between their award contenders, they reunited for Susanne Bier’s Serena—a period drama that shows that even the most winning team can sometimes have an off day.
Serena tells the story of George Pemberton (Cooper), a lumber man who’s struggling to keep his business alive during the Depression. During a trip back home to Boston to meet with his bankers, George falls in love with Serena Shaw (Lawrence), a beautiful but damaged young woman who lost her entire family to a fire at their timber camp in Colorado.
Serena seems like the perfect bride and business partner for George. But as soon as she arrives at camp, her presence seems to change everything, sparking jealousy, betrayal, and deadly rivalries.
Serena is a prime example of what a big difference a filmmaking team can make. Put a couple of talented actors together in a David O. Russell movie, and they’re charming and funny and altogether lovable. Pair the same stars with a different director and a different team, and they become awkward and out of sync. Here, both Lawrence and Cooper seem completely out of their element—unsure of their role and unable to give a consistent performance. Cooper plays George as everything from privileged Easterner to rugged mountain man to ambitious businessman with a heart of gold, while Lawrence tends to play Serena as, alternately, a damaged young woman, a shifty villainess, and a kind of old-timey, vaudevillian performer.
While neither star seems able to get comfortable with the role, the story’s lack of development ensures that audiences won’t get to know the characters—or really care about them, either. And the choppy storytelling—cutting from one incident to another without allowing any of it to sink in—is sure to keep viewers off-balance. It’s a story told through hints and montages and brief glimpses that fail to bring the pieces together in a way that’s satisfying—or even interesting.
Somewhere in here, there’s a dark, haunting story about ambition, jealousy, and the dangers of life in the wilderness—or at least that’s what Bier seems to have been shooting for. But the story never really takes off—and the stars never really settle in—resulting in a dull and perplexing mess with none of the charm or chemistry that audiences have come to expect from Lawrence and Cooper.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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