In Depression-era North Carolina, the future of George Pemberton's timber empire becomes complicated when he marries Serena.In Depression-era North Carolina, the future of George Pemberton's timber empire becomes complicated when he marries Serena.In Depression-era North Carolina, the future of George Pemberton's timber empire becomes complicated when he marries Serena.
- Awards
- 1 win
- Boston bank manager
- (as Christian Mckay)
- Calhoun
- (as Philip Zanden)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAccording to director Susanne Bier, the post-production of the film was complicated by the need for dialogue dubbing, due to airplane noise during the shoot in Prague. Jennifer Lawrence was unable to show up for dubbing sessions. The producers of this movie tried to buy Lawrence out of filming The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) for one day, but that proved to be more expensive than the budget of this movie.
- GoofsAt minute 40:07 Pemberton and Buchanan encounter the bear. The bear that appears on screen is a grizzly, not a black bear. Grizzlies did not inhabit the Smoky Mountains of 1929.
- Quotes
Sheriff McDowell: The logging barons always cry "jobs" and "free enterprise," but the truth is, you barely pay enough to put food on the table!
Pemberton: Oh, we pay more than any job these men can get, and that's why there's a line fifty-deep every time there's an opening.
Sheriff McDowell: Openings? Yes, you always have openings, don't you, Mr. Pemberton? Because your camps have killed more men than the war between the States.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Projector: Serena/Love, Rosie (2014)
- SoundtracksBeignet Cakewalk
Written by Jeff Ford and Michael Esneault (as Mike Esneault)
Courtesy of FirstCom Music
The story is basically an old fashioned American drama about a man, who manages a timber industry, oppresses his ambition that leads to numerous unfortunate events. The core here is a love story in which its romance is often nonexistent, we hardly get to see how they fully develop their relationship. But there is still an interesting growth within these rich details. But the movie is too scattered with various subplots that each takes over the entirety. There is too many conflicts, like they are mostly separated into a whole new different story, unable to say a single or definite point. The third act becomes a weird flood of consequences that doesn't necessarily gain any deserving depth.
There is so much going on with the story, the film also manages to shift it into several tones. It goes to art-house calmness, a showy drama, and then even has a preposterous climax. The worst of it indeed never fits in to its stunning production values. The film seems to be too reliant on what it has. It has captivating cinematography, impressive production, and even the actors are just doing what they believe they can do to make this movie work. Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper are the main attraction here, while they try to bring something to the table, the movie remains to be dreary for not letting the two have an actual engaging moment together. The pacing is reasonably slow, but sometimes it becomes an obligation than another moment to thoughtfully breathe.
Serena is a pretty strange film to encounter, one that has its best potentials fall apart into a surprisingly dull cinema. It's still fascinating to see what it has: great cast, striking images, richly defined context, and gripping drama (if only it has more time to actually develop them), but it really doesn't have an exact intention. And the story keeps on going, still failing to be actually engaging. This is an obvious lesson about creating cinematic drama, when things needed real definition on what's going on and who the characters are, than just throwing them away with stuff that could gloss over its half- baked narrative. Even the presence of the ever appealing Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper couldn't overlook the entire film's unimaginable flaws.
- billygoat1071
- Mar 6, 2015
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- The Falling
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $30,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $176,391
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $100,090
- Mar 29, 2015
- Gross worldwide
- $5,092,129
- Runtime1 hour 49 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1