Serena - C

Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper

Rated R, 109 minutes
Wes's Grade: C

Lawrence and Cooper have done better together than the muddled, downbeat "Serena"

I like Bradley Cooper and love Jennifer Lawrence but was letdown by their third effort together, the depressing, convoluted Great Depression drama "Serena." The North Carolina mountains at the end of the 1920s - George and Serena Pemberton (recent Oscar-nominee Bradley Cooper and Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence), love-struck newly-weds, begin to build a timber empire. However, once the strong-willed, ambitious Serena discovers George's hidden past and faces an unchangeable fate of her own, the Pemberton's passionate marriage begins to unravel. Directed by Oscar-winner Susanne Bier ("In A Better World") and written by Christopher Kyle and based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Ron Rash, "Serena" is a handsomely shot yet sluggish, muddled and misdirected drama that is the weakest movie that Lawrence and Cooper have made together. They usually make a solid pairing, but Lawrence's miscasting here as an outspoken feminist throws the story off by the fact she's too young for the role, though the biggest flaw may in fact could be behind the camera. Bier is an Oscar-winning director of such films as "After the Wedding" and her Oscar-winning film "In A Better World," but she isn't a good fit for the material, painting in broader strokes than the subtle ones needed for a heavy drama like this. Slow-moving and often confusing, particularly the national park subplot that isn't fully explored, there are a handful of decent moments but Bier can't quite get a handle on the material and what the film is trying to say, particularly in the final, twisty last act and the downer of an ending. The costumes, the score and the lush photography from Bier's usual cinematographer Morton Soborg are all first-rate, but "Serena" is an unsatisfactory and unmemorable drama that was shot in 2012, sitting on the shelf and only getting a release probably due to the wave of both Lawrence and Cooper's popularity, though this film won't advance their careers any. "Serena" isn't an awful movie, but considering Lawrence and Cooper's stellar previous efforts together, this comes as a great disappointment.