North Carolina, 1929. As the Great Depression sweeps through the country, George Pemberton tries to hang onto his lumber company even as the local sheriff threatens to buy back the land it’s on to create a national park. When he meets Serena, a young orphan with an iron will, George knows he’s found the perfect woman. Determined and strong underneath her seemingly fragile exterior, she soon establishes herself in George’s masculine world, despite opposition from others. But one test will change Serena and endanger both of their futures…

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The production of Serena was not an ordinary one. At first a project for Angelina Jolie and director Darren Aronofsky, the adaptation of the book by Ron Rash was finally shot with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in 2012, but not released until two years later after going through a series of edits in post-production. Initially considered an Oscar vehicle, the romantic costume drama seems now to embarrass its stars, used as they are to praise for their two other collaborations – Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. The verdict is, unsurprisingly, lukewarm: saddled with a screenplay and editing that are both unbalanced, wrapped in very classic direction, Serena stirs up only a few emotions. The main reason for the failure of the movie is it title: Susanne Bier doesn’t give enough room to her fascinating heroine. Instead, she focuses too much on the bland husband and gets lost in too many boring scenes. This movie is proof that even magnetic stars have their limits and cannot camouflage real problems within a picture.