Silver Linings Playbook - My Review

Silver Linings Playbook  -  2012  -  Directed by David O. Russell

Sometimes the players make the game. Silver Linings Playbook, which at its core is rather predictable and an off-shoot of old fashioned movies, is buoyed by magnificent performances by an all-around stellar cast that elevates the material to comic brilliance.

Bradley Cooper stars as Pat, a man recently released from a mental hospital after suffering a nervous breakdown and almost killing his wife's new lover. When his mom, Dolores (Jacki Weaver), brings him back home much to the surprise of his father Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro), thus begin his attempts to restore his life and get his wife back.

One evening at a dinner party Pat meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a woman who has recently lost her husband and her job, and Pat decides if he helps this woman his wife will see that he has changed and improved his well-being and she will welcome him back with open arms.

This is not a typical fish out of water story where one man is crazy and judged non stop by all the other sane people. In fact, the film seems to be arguing what Pat needs to break out of his tailspin is someone who will embrace his lunacy, someone like Tiffany. Pat Sr. has his own issues of OCD and in the most heartfelt scene of the movie he breaks down while comforting his son as we the audience realize the apple did not fall far from the tree.

Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence (who honestly in my opinion is every bit as good as Chastain's performance in Zero Dark Thirty, if not better) and Jacki Weaver all give great performances but the film's backbone to me was Robert De Niro. He gives a inspiring, poignant performance full of generosity, lunacy and love and his speech to his son at the film's finale, which is formulaic, is soul lifting in his hands.

Silver Linings Playbook is one of the best films of the year.

Rating: 9 out of 10