Serena

For fans of the Ron Rash novel…avoid at all costs! Not only does it fail to capture a semblance of the soul of the book, it is a vapid, hollow showcase of two actors who clearly had no interest in the characters they were supposed to play. Shame to the screenwriter who adapted it. Shame to the director that didn't read the book. Shame on the two actors for sleepwalking through performances whilst dreaming of the laurels of past accomplishments. Do yourself a favor, read the book and don't waste a minute of your time with this garbage. Unfortunately, there was no zero rating…but it did make me laugh a lot so that accounts for something.

Beautifully filmed, set in 1920s North Carolina, revolving around two self centered greedy people who fall in love and get what they deserve. The mountain lion really was a nice touch. I don't know why people hated this, if they're stupid, have short attention spans or are just partial to the book. I suppose it's not perfect, but it's a very good film about early American capitalism in the South.

This movie had so much potential, but it just fell flat. The characters were not well developed at all. It went so fast in the beginning without really letting the audience understand the characters. Then the plot went painfully slow in the middle. It finally redeems itself towards the end.