Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper star in the Serena trailer

Brad Sturdivant September 12th, 2014

You would think a period movie starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper would end up being the buzz of the Oscar season, but unfortunately for them, their film SERENA isn’t getting any buzz, or at least not the kind of buzz they want. SERENA is infamous for how long the film has been completed and how little anyone has seen of the film. Filming wrapped up two years ago and since then, fans haven’t heard much about it. And every movie fan knows; when a movie sits on the shelf for an extended period of time, there’s usually a reason for it. To be fair, the IMDB page says the delay was caused by a scheduling conflict with Jennifer Lawrence as she was needed to do some dubbing and couldn’t get out of her Hunger Games obligations. I hope the delay is as innocent as that, but I’ve seen too many films like this to not be skeptical.

So what is the film about? There’s no official synopsis for the film, but we do know it’s based on the novel by Ron Rash and the official synopsis of his book is: “The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire. Although George has already lived in the camp long enough to father an illegitimate child, Serena is new to the mountains—but she soon shows herself to be the equal of any man, overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving her husband’s life in the wilderness. Together this lord and lady of the woodlands ruthlessly kill or vanquish all who fall out of favor. Yet when Serena learns that she will never bear a child, she sets out to murder the son George fathered without her. Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons’ intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.”

SERENA stars Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Rhys Ifans, Sean Harris, Toby Jones and Sam Reid. The Susanne Bier directed film still doesn’t have a US release date, but it will hit theaters in England next month. Maybe if the film gets a warm reception overseas, we’ll get a release date before the end of the year.