Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Rhys Ifans, Sean Harris, Toby Jones, Sam Reid, David Dencik, Blake Ritson, Ned Dennehy, Charity Wakefield, Michael Ryan, Kim Bodnia, Ana Ularu.
There are those that say that the great American epic is dead. That the days of the great American cinematic nature/love/natural landscape story is as over, torn apart by the digitisation and CGI effects on offer to the 21st Century audiences. It is hard to disagree with that assertion, no matter how much grief and pain it may cause when viewed from the darkness of a cinema screening of Serena.
The tales and allegories of the American great outdoors and honour bound past is something everybody over a certain age can identify with, the likes of Gone With The Wind, Shane, Deliverance even up to an including Broke Back Mountain and in a way No Country For Old Men all shined with the love and attention bestowed upon them. However Serena, a film that has some of the finest acting talent available within its frames, including Jennifer Lawrence, Rhys Ifans, Sean Harris and Toby Jones, takes the great American outdoors and turns it to the very worst kind of pulp.
The story of a selfish man, but who turns out to be decent and caring, driven to commit the worst action possible by a beautiful femme fatale is nothing new, however normally it is carried off with conviction but when the finest love scene in the film is between the femme fatale and the imported Eagle, alarm bells start to go off. The look of passion and admiration that passes between the obviously talented bird of prey and Jennifer Lawrence is one that captures the nature driven theme perfectly, as is the hunting down of the panther by Bradley Cooper, but it doesn’t make a film any more interesting or fulfilling.
With barest passing nod to real plot, at least a plot that was not as cliché ridden as gun fight in an classic western, a leading couple with the sexual chemistry of an ostrich egg being shown a pan of boiling hot water and an unsatisfying ending that should have left many acting in the film asking to never appear in such an ill formed film again, Serena is the type of film that begs the question, are there, at times, just films being made for the sheer hell of them, to beat the public’s head with celluloid until they succumb to watching anything. It works for television so the only possible answer on this evidence must be a resounding yes.
With the epic scenery being captured by a very talented camera operator, at least the heavenly vision of the Smokey Mountains garnered some interest; however that is not enough to keep someone from walking out at the end of the film and asking someone to tear out their eyes as if they had committed an unholy sin against nature.
Disappointing, if only it was completely and utterly forgettable!
Ian D. Hall