Director: David O Russell
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker and Anupam Kher
Somewhere along the line, far far away from the technical gimmickry and puffed up muscles of actors comes a film that is full of everyday characters. A film that, in the process of saying something about the human condition, offers us new insights, new lessons. Films like Jack Nicholson starrer As Good As It Gets (1997) or Ryan Gosling starrer Lars And The Real Girl (2007) come to mind. The former had the central character dealing with advanced OCD while the latter had a social recluse as its principal character. In Silver Linings... Patrizio Solitano Jr. (Bradley Cooper) has a bipolar personality while his father Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro) suffers from a mild form of OCD. Tiffany Maxwell (Jennifer Lawrence) suffers sex addiction which she sees as a cure for the chronic depression brought upon by her husband’s demise.
Pat’s mother and father are supportive of their son’s condition, which was triggered by his wife’s extramarital affair, what with Pat beating the guy to a pulp. They are middle-class survivors. Pat Sr dreams to open a restaurant and becomes a bookmaker to achieve that goal. Pat was high school teacher before his incident while Tiffany is a cop’s widow who has moved from sex to dance to battle the grief. She’s the most sane of the lot, has no problems with her ‘slut’ status and is learning to put the past behind her and trying to move on. Pat suffers from the delusion that if he fills himself with positivity things would get back to normal and his wife would come back to him. Chris Tucker’s character Danny, whom Pat befriends at the mental health facility continuously, tries to break out because he believes he’s wrongly put there. They are normal, everyday, closely bonded Americans who support the American football team Philadelphia Eagles.
It’s good to see Bradley Cooper come into his own as an actor. He has gone past the gaucheness of The Hangover and gives a brilliant portrayal of bipolar man getting a second chance at love. Likewise, Jennifer Lawrence is leagues above the ruthless Katniss from The Hunger Games. She’s put on weight and added a gothic touch to her appearance. She’s more rounded in every sense of the world than her past outings and her confrontation scene with Pat’s family, where she holds up to the likes of De Niro is a must watch. The thespian himself is in full form as the loving, caring father who is blind to his own idiosyncrasies but wants his son to have the best the world offers. Jacki Weaver too is good as Pat’s mother, who instinctively empathises with her son because her husband’s problems haven’t stopped her from loving him. Mention must also be made of Anupam Kher who plays Pat’s shrink Dr Patel with aplomb. And mind you, it’s a proper role and not one of those blink-and-you-miss kind. He also gets to share screen space with one of his idols De Niro and that must have been quite a high.
The film could have been excessively heavy and melodramatic but director David O Russell handles both the comic and tragic scenes with the right touch. He’s managed to create a subtle, believable romance between Cooper and Lawrence despite their age difference (he’s 37, she’s 22). He’s even managed to keep Chris Tucker in character, something which takes some doing. Cinematography by Masanobu Takayanagi captures the film’s mood superbly. It should be added that the leads didn’t know dancing prior to the film and their awkwardness and hesitation on the dance floor lends to the charm.
All-in-all, Silver Linings Playbook is a warm, positive film that you won’t mind revisiting many times over, especially when the blues hit you.
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