Where exactly did Susanne Bier’s Serena go wrong? Was Ron Rash’s 2008 novel too extensive to cover in one feature film? Was the production too slapdash to echo the sorrow and melancholy of the text? Did too many edits take away the nuance and gravitas of the feature? It’s not clear — despite watching it — where things went south, but it’s a fascinating watch nonetheless.
Even when Serena becomes a slog, there’s something oddly transfixing about how this period melodrama is mishandled. It’s not to the discredit of the cast and crew for how clumsy their dedicated efforts appear on screen. Everyone on board looks like they’re trying to make this the best, most dutiful, mature and lyrical movie they can with the respected source material they’ve been handed. It’s to little use, however. This drama lacks any rhythm or nuance, dragged down by astounding terrible pacing and clumsy storytelling. Whatever good movie could’ve have become of this would be lost over time, as it embarrassingly tries to keep a serious face while continuing to become more absurd and over-dramatic at each turn.
That’s right. There’s no way to sugarcoat it or beat around the bush. This is an unbridled mess, confusing and overwrought at each step. By appearance, it would appear multiple years of editing and slicing down Serena turned what likely should’ve been a two-and-a-half/three-hour character-driven epic into a less-than-two hour disaster, wielded down to the most bare oak of the plot. Each plot point is dragged along with no grace or refinement at all. Whatever passion and enthusiasm anywhere near this production was lost, as this is laughably poor tale of woe masquerading as an awards-worthy masterpiece without any sense of self-awareness whatsoever.
It’s more than disappointing; it’s downright disheartening. Any chemistry leads Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper shared so ferociously together in Silver Linings Playbook is completely absent here. Their rushed, disingenuous relationship is meant to display a couple so deeply and inconceivably mad in love with one another that they would travel down the darkness roads of sin and evil to stay in one another’s embrace. Literally zero time is spent watching them grow as partners, however. They simply are in love, hastily seen interacting with one another before they’re announced as husband and wife. It’s almost too baffling to be true.
It’s entirely heartless, right from the very beginning. As stated before, we’re meant to believe they’re wrenched love is what gives their sinful actions direction and sense, and this oversight is even more troublesome as it continues on-screen. The material likely was perhaps too stiff and rugged to really ever be a great film, but how such a complex and soulful pair of characters could become so cut-and-dry as their personalities on screen is bewildering to see.
Although neither provides their best work, both performers are not to blame here, necessarily. Although Lawrence can become particularly over-the-top and Cooper’s accent is ever in a state of flux, it would seem poor direction is their downfall here. They give what they can to make this a respectful piece of art, but they mostly seem confused and at a lost for what they can do. It’s almost as if they’re trying to make sense of the story just at the same points as we are. Typically strong character actors Toby Jones and Rhys Ifans, likewise, look as though their searching for compelling work to give through their supporting characters, but their blunt and depthless characters give them no salvation for their hard-worked efforts.
On a production level, there’s plenty to admire. Cinematography by Morten Søborg readily hands Serena some gorgeous landscape shots of North Carolina, and Richard Bridgland’s stunning production designs hand this 1929-based story the rugged sets needed to make this story appear as elegant as it should be. Signe Sejlund’s costumes are additionally beautiful to look at in how meticulously well conceived they are. The fine work from these professionals makes they’re wasted efforts all the more disappointing.
Indeed, Serena is a trainwreck, and hopefully the irony of having one in the first ten minutes wasn’t lost on the producers. But it’s an entirely watchable failure. Its somehow both off-putting and alluring to witness the madness unfold. The dramatically uneven movie wants to be many things: a sturdy feminist piece, a compelling and sprawling love story, an enchanting period piece, a mournful look at capitalism. None of these are accomplished in the slightest, of course, but they all provide a fitting reminder of one thing: sometimes you can have some of the best talent available and make a film just as bad as any you’d see without it.
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