Serena

UK Release Date: 24th October 2014

In Depression-era North Carolina, the future of George Pemberton's timber empire becomes complicated when he marries Serena (www.imdb.com).

Director: Susanne Bier (Things We Lost in the Fire, Love Is All You Need)

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Sean Harris, Rhys Ifans, Toby Jones

Serena was filmed when Silver Lining's Playbook was being aired, but didn't reached its audience until two years after. Set during the American depression, Serena (Lawrence), a feisty, headstrong woman, becomes the wife of bureaucratic timber-man, Pemberton (Cooper). They have dreams of living far away from their home town in North Carolina, but Pemberton's past threatens to destroy everything they're working for. Serena is rife with potential. The settings are beautiful, the costumes, hair and make-up are extraordinarily detailed. It's ruinous then, that its material isn't profound enough to interest us in the lead characters and their problems. 

2.5/5