SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (2012)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
I have rarely seen a chaotically beautiful, emotionally satisfying, richly layered and ultimately finite romantic comedy like "Silver Linings Playbook." It is hardly average film fare and it is not all that offbeat either. It feels real, humane and honest and positively refreshing in its embrace of seemingly kooky yet very sympathetic characters who have enormous issues. Just like life.
Bradley Cooper is a Baltimore mental patient, Pat Solinato, Jr., suffering from bipolar disorder. He returns home to his parents, Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro), an illegal bookmaker and devoted Philadelphia Eagles fan who is raising money for a restaurant, and his wife, Dolores (Jacki Weaver), after eight months of treatment. Pat refuses to take his meds, yet his mother insists he take them and attend his meetings and see his court-appointed therapist. Pat would rather reconcile with his wife, Nikki, who had an affair which caused Pat to lose his temper where a fury was unleashed that led him to be hospitalized. This led to a restraining order but he still wants to communicate with her. He finally does through Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a widowed woman who recently lost her job because she slept with everyone in the office. Tiffany is not easy to like at first but slowly we see a tortured soul who has issues that Pat can only barely relate to. If Pat wants Tiffany to send a letter to Nikki, he will have to help her as her partner in a dance competition.
Bradley Cooper is not an actor I normally place on high esteem but his Pat Solinato, Jr. is something to behold. Cooper's rage is not frightening but simply misplaced and off-kilter - he is aware of what his actions are and the consequences (he also wears a black garbage bag fitted like a vest). Jennifer Lawrence brings in more of a remarkably off-kilter and shrewd attitude to her Tiffany character - there is no way of knowing what she will do next. Lawrence also displays subtle glances and body language to show her love for Pat who is of course blind to her advances (though she blatantly asks him to nail her on their first "date"). Finally, it is Robert De Niro who gives such a soulful, heartbreakingly real performance as Pat Sr. (who has OCD issues) that I will go on record, as of now, and say it is one of the finest roles De Niro has ever committed to celluloid. Damn straight.
Based on Matthew Quick's 2008 novel and adapted by director David O. Russell, "Silver Linings Playbook" is not a sweet or safe romantic comedy because it plays by its own rules - the rules of reality, not some disarming fantasy. Although to be fair there are a few rom-com cliches here, they are mercifully few and when they occur, they do not feel like cliches. "Silver Linings Playbook" is necessarily messy and swings and shifts its tone often but never at the behest of directorial indulgences. Nothing in the film feels out of place - it all fits. Not unlike director David O. Russell's tough-to-like-yet-easy-to-admire "Spanking the Monkey" or the charming, hysterical road movie "Flirting With Disaster" or the Gulf War trappings of "Three Kings" where soldiers are second to technological warfare, "Silver Linings Playbook" gives emotional weight and resonance to its characters and their heartfelt manners. Russell has already stated that he is more of a Frank Capra man than a Martin Scorsese man - he embraces these characters and their heart (and he doesn't judge them, despite that all of them practically see therapists). Pat and Tiffany simply want to move on, to get past their vices, their guilt, their selfishness, their psychological issues - they are looking for their silver linings. It is chaotic beauty.
