"Silver Linings Playbook" (2012)

“Silver Linings Playbook” (2012) Review:

“Making Your Own Happy Ending”

In recent years David O. Russell has made a wide variety of interesting films, some of them working incredibly well such as “The Fighter” (2010) or “Three Kings” (1999), and a film “I Heart Huckabees” (2004) which seemed to be both bizarre and beautiful. It’s unclear which group “Silver Linings
Playbook”, O. Russell’s latest film fits into as it is, rather than an ambitious winter comedy, a film that seems to rest on it’s laurels and play into a few too many clichés. Is it bad? No. It just doesn’t deserve any praise on a ‘this should be nominated for something this year’ level. Why? Well… 
The story is a romantic comedy about Pat (Bradley Cooper), a happily married man who, upon discovering his wife having an affair has a mental breakdown and nearly beats his wife’s lover to death. After serving eight months in a Baltimore psychiatric institute, Pat comes home to his father Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro), a die-hard Eagles fan and his mother Dolores (Jacki Weaver) who both help him to get his life back on track. This is difficult for Pat as he is still attached to his former wife and has a hard time readjusting until he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) at a diner party. Pat discovers that Tiffany herself has a history of mental issues and the two form an uneasy friendship predicated on mutual attraction on first meeting. From there things start to turn around for Pat as he discovers true friendship as the two train for a dance competition in return for Tiffany delivering Pat’s wife a letter as he cannot due to a restraining order. The film features the normal trials and tribulations of any romantic comedy with delightful cameos from Christ Tucker as the constantly escaping mental patient, and Anupam Kher as Pat’s therapist who both had their moments in the film yet ultimately contributed little to the fabric of the story.
Jennifer Lawrence was great in the film and while the role showed little true acting she was great though she was cast perhaps a bit too young as I did not believe for a moment that she had been married for three years. Bradley Cooper was okay in this role and delivered a solid performance that delivered just the right amount of seriousness and levity to the story at the right moments though this is probably the work of master script writing which was able to create a somewhat convincing and not overly crazy character. The two true stars of the film were really Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver who delivered stellar performances which may have been a bit too slight for their own good as they hit every joke perfectly and truly electrified the film when that was what was asked of them. 
Where this film succeeded was in it’s storytelling which was at times serious and at times very sweet. The story’s flow, though at some times feeling excessively long or embarrassing, seemed to speed up and slow down at the beginning, like the mind of a man with bipolar disorder (as Pat has) in an interesting and ambitious way. Though this script was in most ways very standard yet struck the heart chords of everyone in the audience and in most everyway was a smashing success.
One aspect of the film that was a bit disconcerting were some of the shots, which were done in the now omnipresent shaky hand held camera style which is meant to put the audience truly in the film. For this film I found it distracting and annoying ultimately leaving me with a slight headache as the film let out. Perhaps the film used too many ‘let’s circle the protagonist’ shots? 
As for the true burning question of why this film isn’t Oscar material, this film simply was not an Oscar film. This film’s only true stake in the ground when it came. The to true Oscar viability was use of mental illness in character development and story. As the aspect of mental illness, is buried under heaps of cliché the question emerges, why not push the boundary? Why not try and make a film more about dealing with mental illness? The film felt completely content to virtually abandon the idea of Pat truly struggling with bipolar disorder once Tiffany and Pat’s friendship began in earnest making the entire notion seem gimmicky. Overall the idea of a mentally ill character obsessively trying to recapture his previous life, which seemed to be how the film was billing itself, was a more intriguing idea than what the film ended up being. Was the film entertaining? Of course! But it was not nearly as ambitious as it should have been which was a bit disappointing from a director who made the bizarre, existentialist and almost experimental comedy “I Heart Huckabees.” But did I love it? Well, yeah. What’s not to love about a man trying to find his own happy ending? As the film seemed to build to that, the ending felt completely satisfying despite the fact that from the synopsis one could tell you exactly how they predicted it to end. But it doesn’t matter because once it hits you, it hits you, and that’s a silver lining if I’ve ever seen one.

Stars: 8.5 / 10