“Serena” continues the dynamic screen pairing of Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. It’s also one of a handful movies that can be called Studio Killers. 2929 Productions went kaput to bring you this period piece about a lumber empire spurring murder. The film slams back and forth between political underpinnings and murder plots. The least said about Jennifer Lawrence’s accent in this film…the better.
I’m not sure if I’m ever going to say what went wrong. Mainly, because I’ve seen far worse historical fiction that played loose with greater details. I never read the original Ron Rash novel, but I don’t know if it would really fill in that many gaps. There seems like a push to create a dimestore murder romance novel, but it never sticks the landing. But, it does know that it wanted to fire off more lens flares than JJ Abrams doing a Star Trek movie.
The Blu-Ray comes with deleted scenes and featurettes as the special features. The A/V Quality is strong with a supportive DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track and 1080p transfer. The transfer plays heavy on the dark details, as the film draws out color. The end result is a reasonable presentation, but it lacks major punch-up. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase to the curious.
Release Date: 6/9/15