The movie “Serena” is a period piece that centers around a lumber baron (played by Bradley Cooper) attempting to survive the stock market crash of the 30’s with the help of his new love Serena (Jennifer Lawrence). Based on the New York Times Best Selling novel by Ron Rash, the screenplay was written by Christopher Kyle (Alexander, The Weight of Water). The film, directed by Susanne Bier (In A Better World, Love Is All You Need), is becoming known as the little engine that couldn’t. For almost two years this movie was denied the right to be seen as it could not get its distribution rights off the ground. This might have tainted the average viewer watching this film, and I admit that upon reading up on the film I was convinced it was yet another star vehicle with no artistic value, but I wanted to give it a chance. In a sense, it achieved more than I expected it to, but it did so in such a roundabout, at times cliche way that I feel as though it would be pertinent to break it down.

Serena’s good elements exist in the form of a patchwork quilt. It has action, romance, gore, drama and a light dose of philosophy. If strung together in a pleasing manner and explored further this movie might have been known as an epic blockbuster, however as you could probably tell from the beginning of this sentence; it did not. The great thing about a patchwork quilt is that it has something for everybody, anyone can look at its design and be mesmerized by at least one of its squares (such as the cinematic direction, which is a wonderful sight to behold). However, as it is assured you will enjoy at least one element in this film; there will be at least one you detest. The central issue is that while this movie, like a quilt, has something for everybody it fails to achieve what a quilt does best; effortless cohesion.

The movie starts out like a romantic comedy, with Bradley Cooper playing the every-man fantasy of being a rich, action hero who always gets the girl. He even courts Serena in the unsettling manner that is the romantic comedy standard; boy likes girl, boy creeps on girl, girl finally caves because persistence is sexy. Here is where we run into the first major problem of the movie, Serena is characterized as a “wild-child” raised by native people; so you’d think she’d have a problem with dating someone who’s literally destroying the land she was raised to respect and worship. But no, love conquers all, even environmental awareness, which wouldn’t bother me except her affinity for the natural world is one of the more important plot aspects of this movie!