Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Certified: 14
Duration: 122 minutes
Directed by: David O’Russell
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Julia Stiles, Anupam Kher, Brea Bee
KRS release
David O’Russell, who had delivered a very strong film with 2010’s The Fighter, brings another knock-out film which can be described as the perfect sum of the right components.
I usually cringe when the subject matter of a film involves themes like mental illness and side effects. It is not that the subject is not cinema worthy, it is just that Hollywood has a habit of sugar-coating everything to such an extreme, and to simplify matters so much, that the subject is never treated with the seriousness it deserves.
Not so with Silver Linings Playbook, which is funny yet tender, vulnerable yet strong and energetic yet moody.
Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper) has a very unsettled life. When he discovered his wife, Nikki (Brea Bree), with another man, he gave him a good beating. This got him eight months’ time in a psychiatric hospital, where he made friends with Danny (Chris Tucker).
When he is dismissed, he goes to live with his mother and father, Dolores and Pat Sr (Jacki Weaver and Robert De Niro) but he wants his old life back including his teaching job, wife and home. Meanwhile, his father, a betting bookie, wants his son around as a portent of good luck for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Pat is eventually diagnosed as being bipolar and he firmly believes that everything has a silver lining and that his wife will soon want him back. One day, he accepts a dinner invitation from his friends Ronnie and Veronica (John Ortiz and Julia Stiles), thinking that the latter sometimes meets Nikki. Here he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), Veronica’s younger sister, who is very wild and troubled. She had been married to a policeman who died in an accident. Despite their differences, the two soon find solace in each other and a strange friendship and relationship starts to develop.
This adaptation of Matthew Quick’s 2008 book takes us into Pat’s chaotic head and we get a glimpse of the why and how of his thinking. This man is a victim, one who needs to be understood and Cooper delivers a surprisingly deep performance.
This sometimes makes for some very discomforting moments and the beauty of the picture is that you get to feel Pat’s rush of anxiety and tension.
His condition is made even more understandable when one looks at his father’s tics and traits. The way De Niro plays him brings to the screen that touch of unpredictability.
However, it is the bringing together of Lawrence and Cooper that propels the film forward. The two actors’ on-screen rapport is truly heartfelt.
Despite all the above, the film remains light and airy, never going overboard in its intensity.
The film succeeds by opening a window on two solitary characters that are battling with themselves and society, while slowly inching towards each other. It does this by walking a tightrope so deftly and bringing together a whole kaleidoscope of genres that could have easily gone wrong. Thankfully it does not, and Silver Linings Playbook will surely feature heavily at the upcoming Oscars.