Director Susanne Bier
Starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Rhys Ifans
Rated MA
Score 1.5/6

In Depression-era North Carolina, the future of George Pemberton’s timber empire becomes complicated when he marries Serena.

Okay, movie number 3 in the Unfestival. For those of you who are interested Serena was adapted from a 2008 book of the same name written by Ron Rash.

I am completely unfamiliar with Susanne Bier’s work and I was a little surprised that this was chosen for the Unfestival, because on the face of it the plot of Serena actually seemed to be very promising, though after reading about its run at the box office I started to get an idea as to why this was chosen for me to watch. This is a bad movie, though to be honest its not completely rotten. The mountains in which the movie was shot in lent to some stunning cinematography and the plot is enough to hold your interest, though I would hazard a guess that the movie is nothing like the book that it was adapted from.
What really let the movie down was the acting and I would like to think that Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawerence (especially Lawerence) are capable of so much more. For the entire movie the acting seemed to be flat to the point of being almost emotionless. Without giving to much away there is a scene that lead into the final act of the movie that needed an emotional punch from Lawerence to the audience, but the flat tone of the movie ruined the movie and left me thinking ‘oh wow, emotional range’ rather then being taken away by the emotion of the scene.

I will admit that by the end of movie I was a little teary eyed. But Serena was more disappointing then anything else.