I learned recently that Serena is supposed to be absolutely awful. The fact that I already know this as I write raises some questions about the rules of trailer reviews: should I somehow try to cabin my knowledge as I write the review? Should I even write a review for a trailer when I’ve heard serious buzz about a film? I don’t think there’s a definitive right answer to these questions, but my answer is that I’m going to write the review. Luckily, I don’t think that this issue will come up often in the future, since I will be reviewing trailers as soon as they come out – usually long before their movies have gained reliable reputations.
I’ll be honest: when I first saw a Serena trailer a few months ago, I thought it looked pretty good. The Depression-era Appalachian setting and the musical accompaniment both reminded me of Lawless, a fantastic and underrated flick (with, since we’re on the subject, a not-so-great trailer). I generally like stories in which characters are driven over the edge. Jennifer Lawrence’s hair looks cool.
But I think what’s most interesting about this trailer now is the question of whether it provided any hints that the movie was a mess. Perhaps it’s simply hindsight, but I think the answer is yes. The biggest hint: the trailer doesn’t make much sense. What the heck are they talking about when Serena says “It’s beautiful,” and Bradley Cooper says “And that’s just the start”? Why is Serena totally fine one moment and completely insane the next? And the best line in the entire trailer: “I’m afraid your stocks are no longer sufficient collateral” – what stocks? Collateral for what? Why are they no longer sufficient? What are the repercussions of insufficient collateral? Trailers should err on the side of avoiding spoilers, but the viewer should never be left this confused.
This trailer simultaneously seems to give away too little (see my questions above) and too much (we know that the couple’s friend steals from them, and Serena ends up being a ruthless killer). The viewer is left thinking both that he has no idea what the movie is about and that knows the entire story. Ultimately, this strange dichotomy is an indication that the trailer’s editors didn’t know how to pitch the movie, which in turn probably means that Serena‘s creators did not have a solid understanding of what story they were trying to tell. The trailer still doesn’t suggest a film as bad as Serena purportedly is, but, with the benefit of hindsight, we can see that the trailer did not entirely obscure Serena‘s failure.