Serena
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: March 27, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
36
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
13
Negative:
12
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 1, 2015
The atmosphere surrounding them both is enveloping. While the story falls a bit into melodrama, that can’t chop away at the solid drama the stars and director build beautifully. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMar 26, 2015
Funny how there are fans of Jennifer Lawrence who will never see her in Serena. It’s not her best film, but it contains one of her best performances, in a role that challenges her more than any other. Read full review
65
TheWrapInkoo KangMar 26, 2015
Densely packed and gorgeously expressionist, the old-fashioned tragedy is very nearly a satisfying experience despite its various shortcomings. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Geoff PevereDec 4, 2014
A film that should be shamelessly soaked in passion and thrusting erotic delirium is instead posed and prettified, to the point where “camp” comes to mean more than the place where lumberjacks work – it’s also the movie’s defining vibe. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinMar 26, 2015
It's absorbing, well-played stuff until Serena's emotional baggage turns her into a kind of lethal Blanche DuBois and melodrama overtakes the film's muscular bearing. Read full review
60
VarietyGuy LodgeOct 21, 2014
An arrestingly nihilistic Depression melodrama, marked by courageous performances and exquisite production values... The result is both problematic and fascinating, an unsympathetic spiral of human tragedy that plays a little like a hand-me-down folk ballad put to film. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubVadim RizovMar 25, 2015
Played as a kind of constant wake, grimly marching on to tragedy, Serena is hurt by relentless applications of Johan Söderqvist’s unimaginatively somber score and DP Morten Søborg’s reliance on lots of over-the-shoulder handheld shots, the camera swinging close to and around people’s faces and shoulders. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMar 27, 2015
Director Susanne Bier and screenwriter Christopher Kyle (no, not the man depicted in “American Sniper”) aim for a tragic monumentality but hit very wide of the mark. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMar 26, 2015
Based on an acclaimed novel by Ron Rash, Serena is like a towering tale that’s been fed into a woodchipper. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 24, 2015
Whatever Ron Rash’s novel had to offer, Bier has rendered it into something soapy, with everything compelling about it washed out. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Charlie LyneOct 21, 2014
This is a film full of unremarkable compromises — the kind that result in a bland film rather than a bad one. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianJeff BakerApr 2, 2015
Bier's direction seems tentative, unsure whether to go all-in on the pulpier aspects of the story or play it straight. She gets mixed results from her leads: Cooper is game but not fierce or conflicted enough; Lawrence doesn't get deep enough to pull anyone along on her spiral into madness. Read full review
40
Village VoiceSerena DonadoniMar 24, 2015
Screenwriter Christopher Kyle touches on hot-button issues of class conflict, land use, and no-holds-barred capitalism. He also strips Serena of moral ambiguity, turning deeply twisted relationships into a doomed romance where transgressors punish themselves. Read full review
40
The DissolveScott TobiasMar 17, 2015
Serena is quite bad, as it happens, but until it goes absolutely haywire in the final act, the biggest problem is that it’s all bones and no flesh, so busy combining all the structural elements that go into an award-winner that it has no personality of its own. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterStephen DaltonOct 21, 2014
It is difficult to believe a single word of it, still less to care about these relentlessly selfish and short-sighted characters. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeOct 21, 2014
We don’t invest anything in either character, and with barely any tension, Serena grabs neither head nor heart. Read full review
40
EmpireAngie ErrigoOct 20, 2014
Commercially it looks a disaster. Artistically, if very far from a triumph, it’s interesting, almost held together by its charismatic stars. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMar 27, 2015
Serena is one long eye-roll of calamities and corn. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 26, 2015
It must have looked great on paper. On screen, it’s a soapy mess that even Joan Crawford in her delusional late-period prime couldn’t save. Read full review
30
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 26, 2015
The actors don’t just look uncomfortable in their period duds, they also look uneasy in their own skins, which is a feat for two such natural, physically confident screen performers. Read full review
25
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMar 27, 2015
It’s a flat-out disaster, the kind of film that its cast and crew hope gets buried as quickly as possible as they race to move on to other projects. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 26, 2015
Lawrence, obviously a talented actress, is monumentally bad here. There’s no nuance to her performance as Serena, no gradual descent for the character. She’s a conniving, criminal nutball, and Lawrence overplays her as if she’s a villainess in a mediocre silent film. Read full review
25
Washington PostStephanie MerryMar 26, 2015
Cooper and Lawrence do their best, but the material consistently works against them, from the overwrought dialogue to the never-ending plot twists in place of character development. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 26, 2015
Audiences forced to endure the 109 coma-inducing minutes of Serena should bring an e-book or a soft pillow. Read full review
25
New York PostLou LumenickMar 25, 2015
The choppily edited and thoroughly wooden Serena utterly fails to catch fire, even when everything literally goes up in flames. So despite its big stars, it’s getting only a token theatrical release. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedMar 25, 2015
This is an unfortunate next step for Mr. Cooper, while Ms. Lawrence, who co-starred with him memorably in "Silver Linings Playbook" and "American Hustle," finds the third time far from a charm, more like a curse. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMar 22, 2015
The film can't reconcile Ron Rash's apocalyptic tenderness with its own eagerness to revel in romantic star allure. Read full review
16
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonOct 21, 2014
The film isn't bad enough to be some kind of potential cult classic: it's tedious, with even the stranger moments and plot developments failing to raise the pulse. Read full review
10
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMar 26, 2015
Any kind of acting requires courage. Great acting requires formidable courage. Then there’s the dogged courage, spawned by devotion to duty, of wonderful actors like these, doing what they’re asked to do even though they must know that it’s no damned good. Read full review
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