5.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.6 |
In Depression-era North Carolina, the future of George Pemberton's timber empire becomes intertwined with the course of his marriage to, and partnership with, his new wife, Serena.
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Rhys Ifans, Blake Ritson, Sean HarrisDrama | 100% |
Psychological thriller | 37% |
Period | 29% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
BD-Live
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Serena should be much better than the meandering affair that took almost three years to reach U.S. screens after principal photography wrapped in the Czech Republic in 2012. The script was adapted from a bestselling novel by Ron Rash. The director was Susanne Bier, whose In a Better World won the 2011 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and whose searing 2004 Brothers was remade in English in 2009. The cast featured the lucky chemistry of Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence in their third pairing (after Silver Linings Playbook and just before American Hustle), and once again they were playing psychologically fractured characters with a complex relationship. The producers included Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban, the owners of 2929 Productions, Magnolia Pictures and the Landmark Theater Chain. If you read the extensive press notes that Magnolia assembled for Serena's U.S. theatrical release in March 2015, it's clear that everyone involved was passionate about the project and had definite and interesting ideas about what the film could be. Unfortunately, few of those ideas made it to the screen. Much of the blame rests with the screen adaptation written by Christopher Kyle, which radically alters the novel's plot, but Kyle does not bear sole responsibility. Although he was handpicked for the job, director Bier had substantial input after she replaced the original director, Darren Aronofsky. The producers also appear to have played an active role, and the deleted scenes suggest a heavy hand in the editing room. It's almost as if everyone involved became so familiar with the story that they began to speak in code, forgetting that most of the audience would not share their familiarity and would need to be led by the hand through a coherent narrative with a beginning, middle and end. As Kyle notes in the disc's extras, Serena strongly echoes both Macbeth and Medea. But imagine if someone were to "adapt" Shakespeare's Macbeth by omitting crucial scenes and replacing them with others. Instead of meeting with the witches, Macbeth would sit around a campfire with his soldiers and describe the encounters in passing. Instead of Lady Macbeth persuading her husband to kill the King, she'd chat with her servants, and after the murder she and her husband would exchange just a few words. Banquo's ghost wouldn't appear at dinner to upset Macbeth, but a few of the dinner guests would mention the disturbance during lengthy scenes of business at court. And Lady Macbeth would never be seen sleepwalking; at most, her maid might mention that she's been behaving oddly. The same essential information would be conveyed as in Shakespeare's play, but it wouldn't have much impact. Serena constantly leaves you with the feeling that important events are being skipped over, and the film is running to catch up. And just as it seems about to draw even with the story it's trying to tell, the focus shifts to something else.
Serena was shot on the Red Epic by Morten Søborg, who is director Biers's usual cinematographer. Color grading and post-production were completed on a digital intermediate, from which Magnolia Home Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray was presumably sourced. Whatever Serena's flaws as filmed entertainment, its production design, costumes and other technical features are superb, and the Blu-ray highlights these aspects of the film. Clear, sharp, detailed and colorful, the image brings both the beauty of the natural surroundings, and the contrasting devastation wrought by Pemberton's lumber operations, to the home video screen in all their glory. Details of period costumes, makeup, hair styles, decor and wilderness are always readily visible, and blacks are solid and deep. Earth tones predominate, except for the blues of night and early morning and a few bold colors in Serena's wardrobe. Magnolia has placed Serena on a BD-50, but it has left much of the space unused, so that the film achieves an average bitrate of only 22.99 Mbps. This is adequate for digitally originated material, and artifacts were not an issue.
Serena's 5.1 soundtrack has been encoded in lossless DTS-HA MA, and it's an impressive affair. Sounds of nature and of the activity in Pemberton's logging operation are layered into the mix all around, and wide dynamic range reproduces the sense of a huge tree falling from the sharp crack of the trunk being cut to the deep thud of its landing on the ground. Hunters' gunshots reverberate, horses' hooves beat and steam machinery hisses. Dialogue is generally clear, even with the backwoods accent adopted by Rhys Ifans as Galloway, and the sweeping orchestral score by Johan Söderqvist (Kon-Tiki) adds scale to the entire film. (The score has some of the deepest bass extension on the soundtrack.)
Serena has first-rate production values and an interesting cast, and the Blu-ray is technically superior. If that is enough for you, then by all means acquire it. If you care about a coherent story that's well told, skip it.
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