X
- 2015
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 49 m
- 2015
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 49 m
Summary In the North Carolina mountains at the end of the 1920s, George (Bradley Cooper) and Serena Pemberton (Jennifer Lawrence), love-struck newly-weds, begin to build a timber empire. Serena soon proves herself to be equal to any man: overseeing loggers, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving a man’s life in the wilderness. With power and influen...
Directed By: Susanne Bier
Written By: Christopher Kyle, Ron Rash
- 2015
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 49 m
- 2015
- R
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 49 m
Serena
36
5.0
Where to Watch
Summary In the North Carolina mountains at the end of the 1920s, George (Bradley Cooper) and Serena Pemberton (Jennifer Lawrence), love-struck newly-weds, begin to build a timber empire. Serena soon proves herself to be equal to any man: overseeing loggers, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving a man’s life in the wilderness. With power and influen...
Directed By: Susanne Bier
Written By: Christopher Kyle, Ron Rash
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 29 Critic Reviews
36
14% Positive
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
45% Mixed
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
41% Negative
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 29 Critic Reviews
36
14% Positive
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
45% Mixed
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
41% Negative
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
The atmosphere surrounding them both is enveloping. While the story falls a bit into melodrama, that can’t chop away at the solid drama the stars and director build beautifully.
An arrestingly nihilistic Depression melodrama, marked by courageous performances and exquisite production values... The result is both problematic and fascinating, an unsympathetic spiral of human tragedy that plays a little like a hand-me-down folk ballad put to film.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 52 User Ratings
5.0
33% Positive
17 Ratings
17 Ratings
31% Mixed
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
37% Negative
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 52 User Ratings
5.0
33% Positive
17 Ratings
17 Ratings
31% Mixed
16 Ratings
16 Ratings
37% Negative
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
I am surprised and dismayed by the bad and lukewarm reviews this movie got. My expectations were very low and i was pleasantly surprised. I liked the movie the story is quite emotionally involving and I've been a Bradley Cooper fan for quite a while. The movie is certainly not mindblowing but I was thoroughly entertained and I enjoyed every moment.
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I usually write a review only when my opinion drastically differentiates from what I find already contributed - when there's a dire need to tip the scale. And there is one here, to save this incredible film from the lynch mob.
This atmospheric dark period romance set in an unusual stage has a lot of human drama to offer. And this is what S. Bier is known at excelling. And pouring it on, which obviously irritates some part of the audience. But it is all done with a lot of taste for timing, with a good and fresh modern editing which disposes of most needless parts of the action and instead rather reserves that time for us to think about it all during the breaks of foggy Smoky Mountains scenery. (Obfuscation plays a leading role here, and this landscape couldn't be a better choice.)
Film is layered with appropriately somber music used/mixed with subtlety, and likewise it gorgeous photography has been wonderfully appreciated by the edit which understands its visual potential. This is one of those rare instances where a pattern of handheld closeups doesn't seem gratuitous, but does manage to bring us closer to the characters. Beside this being the result of the strong characters themselves, it is also a combination of a slower, not-frenetic pace, with a lot of static masters too.
While there might be some unbelievable decisions the characters make in this story, we need to remind ourselves that instead of treating this as a negative, these are the emotional extremes we should be welcoming, in an emotional rawness which needs appreciation. At the end, it is an emotional and symbolic theatre in which all the elements and symbols have and live to deliver their wonderfully intertwined meanings.
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Whatever Ron Rash’s novel had to offer, Bier has rendered it into something soapy, with everything compelling about it washed out.
It is difficult to believe a single word of it, still less to care about these relentlessly selfish and short-sighted characters.
The actors don’t just look uncomfortable in their period duds, they also look uneasy in their own skins, which is a feat for two such natural, physically confident screen performers.
Audiences forced to endure the 109 coma-inducing minutes of Serena should bring an e-book or a soft pillow.
Any kind of acting requires courage. Great acting requires formidable courage. Then there’s the dogged courage, spawned by devotion to duty, of wonderful actors like these, doing what they’re asked to do even though they must know that it’s no damned good.
i thought it was gonna **** and it did.....i almost like how the train fight scene **** so bad.....jennifer lawrence thinks that making an ugly face and then a pretty face it good acting and i cant disprove that now.......bradley cooper shouldn't have been such a **** about the panther hunt is the underlying **** fun facts of the movie is that now shes saying to Cooper that his past doesn't matter and in silver linings it was her past that wasn't supposed to matter......another fun fact is that Thats the second time that the guy has no hand in a **** woulds have been funny if the end had lawrence on the train that the ugly chick is on....I enjoyed watching the trees fall down and watching how cooper chose not murdering babies over sex......however how could a women ever be respected by a guy when all she did was save a foot of timber....
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Serena certainly didn't have the best dialogue, but I don't think the movie is terrible. It has a good plot, it has a wonderful cast (I think they should have known the characters better), but overall it's not bad. They got Asheville and Waynesville right. My only real problem... why the hell didn't they film it here. Yes, I'm from Waynesville. And there are still plenty of places around here to get that 1929 vibe. I mean, part of "The Hunger Games" was filmed here, so Jennifer Lawrence knows our area. Authentic goes a long way.
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Production Company
2929 Productions,
Chockstone Pictures,
Nick Wechsler Productions,
StudioCanal,
Syon Media
Release Date Mar 27, 2015
Duration 1 h 49 m
Rating R
Tagline Some loves can never let you go.
Awards
Yoga Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
