Serena review: beautiful cinematography and fine supporting cast
THE last time we saw Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper together they were breezing through the decade that taste forgot in American Hustle.
Their reunion in Serena is a very different affair; a glum, stately melodrama set in the North Carolina of 1929 as the first chill wind of the Great Depression is starting to bite.
Based on the bestseller by Ron Rash it is reminiscent of something Theodore Dreiser or Edna Ferber might have written at the time.
Bradley Cooper is rugged timber baron George Pemberton.
One glimpse of blonde, beguiling Serena (Lawrence) and he knows he has met the love of his life.
They marry in haste and repent at leisure as the very moment of their greatest happiness seems to have sewn the seeds of enough misfortune to nudge the film towards hysterical Greek tragedy.
Serena is an undoubtedly handsome production with some beautiful cinematography from Morten Soborg.
It has a fine British supporting cast (Rhys Ifans, Toby Jones, Sean Harris etc) and some tense, involving scenes but with all its beauty and tragedy it never packs the emotional wallop that the plot might have promised.