Serena (2014)

“I think you've taken none months to do about six months' work. But a few changes should greatly increase profitability.”

 “What did you find, wife or a partner?”

 “Both.”

            I am not really into movies that deal with crazy, jealous wives or ex-wives or the same thing with crazy, jealous husbands. That storyline just drives me up a wall because I am not a jealous or seriously crazy person. I also do not like those kinds of stories in movies because they have been made since the dawn of the motion picture industry. I went into Serena not knowing precisely what the story was about. I had read a summary somewhere and it was a good summary because it made me want to watch the movie and it also left out the jealousy/craziness aspect. Well, I must confess, even if the summary did mention that aspect I still would have watched Serena because I adore the hell out of Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.

            George Pemberton (Cooper) owns a timber mill. He makes a nice sum of money but lately he has found himself in some financial trouble and also trouble with the law. George wants to sell his business in North Carolina and move to Brazil. He would like to sell his business for a few million but it is the middle of the Depression and not many people have that kind of money.

            He goes out to Chicago for a while and there he meets Serena (Lawrence). Her family had been killed in a fire and she now single handedly owns the family timber business in Colorado. George begins to flirt with Serena because she has money but of course soon they fall in love with each other. They are soon married and he takes her back to his timber business in the middle of nowhere North Carolina. Serena proves to be an asset as she suggests some changes and even goes out to view the workers. The first person not to warm up to Serena is George’s partner Buchanan. He does not like how Serena has told him what to do. She did not tell him to do something in a harsh way, it was a suggestion and George told him to go along with it. Buchanan definitely did not like to be told what to do by a woman.

            Soon Buchanan decides to side with the local sheriff when he catches Buchanan taking money to bribe a senator. Since Buchanan is pissed off with George for bringing Serena around he decides to testify against his friend and show them the books for the company and how they are fixed. Needless to say George is pissed off that the guy he thought was his friend would betray him. George takes Buchanan out hunting out day… and if I have to tell you what happens you have obviously never watched movies in your life.

            Before George killed Buchanan, Serena told him she was pregnant. Unfortunately she loses the baby and that devastates them both. Serena, even after so many years, is still suffering from the loss of her family. This new loss is too much for her to bear. She soon has one of George’s hired help kill anyone that threatens George and their business. Serena especially targets a young woman named Rachel. Rachel had once worked on the timber yard as a teacher but left because she had a baby out of wedlock. George let her back in despite protests from Serena and a few other workers. Serena finds out that the baby is George’s and that sends her out of control.

            George manages to get Rachel their son out of the county before they can be killed. He goes back to the woods near his yard and his kills himself by attracting a mountain lion that was in the area. Serena also kills herself by setting the house on fire.

            There was a lot more to this story that was very interesting and that lead to George and Serena’s downfall.

            Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper were perfection together. I love their chemistry and they are both such great actors. I believe that without them playing the main characters the movie would not have turned out as well as it did.

            Serena was a good movie despite the story. I feel that even though it had a typical jealous wife story it played out differently than others with the same story. Both George and Serena obviously had a lot of issues both personally and professionally before they married and after they were married their issues just escalated. There were some parts of the movie and story that dragged but for the most part I liked it. Serena is currently available to view on Netflix. It is worth watching once.