MovieChat Forums > Serena (2015) Discussion > It's not a masterpiece, but...

It's not a masterpiece, but...

posted 10 years ago by mroxman
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Serena is a quite passable period film. Perhaps it's because I'm a huge fan of Suzanne Bier but I don't understand the vicious criticism against Serena. Given Serena's reputation, I kept waiting for the film to take the plunge into nonsensical absurdity and it never really did.

It seems like critics especially have chosen to pile on this film for fairly arbitrary reasons (18% on Rotten Tomatoes, really?). IMO, Serena is fairly comparable to the recent period dramas I've watched like Far From The Madding Crowd and the Imitation Game - both of which received warm receptions.

Listen, this film is not a masterpiece, and if you're new to Bier you should watch basically anything else. But period dramas are by their very nature slow paced, fairly stylistically conservative, and steeped in melodrama. So is Serena.

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

... I don't understand the vicious criticism against Serena.

I do. It's a terrible film. It has a fine cast, great production values, a really nice musical soundtrack, but the story is just a shocker, with very few redeeming features. The characters are in the main drawn one dimensionally, attracting little sympathy for their causes from us. They frequently act without much reason or set-up on the part of the film-makers and from the half way point, the movie slides inexorably towards an over the top, melodramatic finale.

Believe me when I say I understand and agree with the critics' responses and why the film had such a timid cinematic release.🐭