Tiffany: Jennifer Lawrence
Pat Sr.: Robert De Niro
Dolores: Jacki Weaver
Danny: Chris Tucker
Dr. Cliff Patel: Anupam Kher
Ronnie: John Ortiz
Jake: Shea Whigham
Veronica: Julia Stiles
Randy: Paul Herman
The Weinstein Company
presents a film written and directed by David O. Russell. Based on the novel by
Matthew Quick. Running time: 122 min. Rated R (for language and some sexual
content/nudity).
There are times when my fanaticism
over the New York Football Giants crosses over into the obsessive/compulsive
realms. If the Giants lose a game when I wear one of my jerseys, I’ll probably
wear a different one the next week. I am like an anvil when it comes to
anything conflicting with seeing a game live. If a kid has soccer practice,
I’ll still go, but I have to sit in the van with the satellite radio tuned to
the Giants. But, every once and a while I give in. I recorded a couple this
year and just had to catch up with the live feed after getting home from a
couple family events here and there. I don’t insist that I sit in the exact same
seat for every game. When they lose, although I feel I’ve let the team down, I
know in my heart that I don’t really have supernatural abilities to affect the
outcome. If I thought that, people might think I’m crazy.
Pat is crazy. He’s not
totally off his rocker, but he’s a more modern and tempered version of nuts. He
was sentenced to spend eight months in a mental facility after an “incident.” He’s
been diagnosed as bipolar. We meet him as he’s preparing for his day there. He
psyches himself up with a mantra that includes the detail that he’s a
Philadelphia Eagles football fan. He has adapted a positive outlook that
includes the word “excelsior”—everything has a silver lining and takes you
higher. He still seems like a pretty angry individual, though.
Pat’s mother gets him
released to her and Pat Sr.’s custody. He has a restraining order on him to
stay away from his wife, who was involved in the incident, which also involved
another man. Pat has issues with his dad. They are not so different from each
other. His dad has been in so many fights at Eagles games that he’s been banned
from the stadium. His dad is hoping to reconnect with Pat on Sundays while he’s
forced to be home. Pat, however, has other plans that aren’t so well thought
out considering the restraining order. He’s obsessed with the notion that he
can and will get back together with his wife. Then he meets a kindred spirit in
Tiffany, whose husband, a police officer recently died.
What we have in “Silver
Linings Playbook” is essentially a romantic comedy in the guise of a portrait
of mental illness. That’s not a complaint. It’s an interesting take on both
subject matters. The Meet Cute in this case involves two people who have no
filters between their heads and their mouths. Pat’s wife’s best friend, who
also happens to be Tiffany’s sister, sets them up. Pat’s family isn’t sure
about the pairing since Tiffany has acquired a bit of a reputation because of
her condition. She slept around a great deal after her husband’s death, but she
was never institutionalized like Pat.
They aren’t “dating” so much
as helping each other to achieve something they couldn’t without the other. Pat
wants Tiffany to deliver a letter to his wife explaining his actions. In
exchange, Pat has agreed to dance with Tiffany in an amateur competition. Of
course, everybody has trouble accepting the plutonic nature of their
relationship, not the least of who is Pat, who has trouble reconciling his newfound
feelings for Tiffany with his determination to get back with his wife.
More so than anything, the
success of the film lies within the performances of the four primary characters—Pat,
Pat Sr., Tiffany, and Pat’s mother, Dolores. Bradley Cooper and Jennifer
Lawrence have bigger hurdles than most rom com stars to traverse as they must
overcome the erratic and sometimes nasty behavior of their characters. Their
relationship works as therapy for both the characters and the audience. We all
must become more accepting of differences in public personalities. These two
characters fight against the sheep-like nature society wants them to assume,
while the audience learns to accept a very untraditional romantic courtship.
Robert De Niro, as the
senior Pat, is nearly as manic as Pat himself. The primary difference being
that his behavior is more widely accepted as the eccentricities of age, an
aspect of his obsession with everything Eagles, and a product of his
generation. De Niro is allowed a great emotional scene when he finally tries to
open up to his son, revealing that he thinks Pat’s sickness might be his fault.
David O. Russell’s screenplay wisely refrains from having Pat attempt to
comfort his father’s confession.
I would say the unsung hero
of the family and the performances comes from Jacki Weaver as the fretting
mother were it not for her well-deserved Oscar nomination. Weaver never
overplays the mother. She stays within her place as a mother from her
generation. She barely raises her voice above the men. She also takes matters
into her own hands on more than one occasion in very passive, but calculated
ways. Her presence is exactly what it should be.
Russell has handled family
and hero dysfunction before in such films as “The Fighter” and “Flirting with
Disaster”. His direction has a harsh, gritty feel to build the portrait of
these damaged people. His screenplay also flirts with deeper meanings and more
profound feelings as with the scene were the father confesses his feelings to
Pat. Without ever quite reaching the deepest moments with which it teases, it
also embraces a little too many romantic clichés by its end. Some of the
character’s actions in the final scenes feel more like what they’re supposed to
be doing than what these two particular characters would actually do. For such
a dramatic take on the romantic heroes, it all ends in an awfully silver silver
lining. I wonder if a not so perfect ending might’ve felt more satisfying for
this set up.
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