Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

2012, movie, romantic,

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Directed by	David O. Russell
Produced by	Bruce Cohen Donna Gigliotti
Screenplay by	David O. Russell
Based on	The Silver Linings Playbook  by Matthew Quick
Starring	Bradley Cooper Jennifer Lawrence Robert De Niro Jacki Weaver Anupam Kher Chris Tucker
Music by	Danny Elfman
Cinematography	Masanobu Takayanagi
Editing by	Jay Cassidy Crispin Struthers
Studio	The Weinstein Company Mirage Enterprises

Silver Linings Playbook is a 2012 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by David O. Russell, adapted from the novel The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick.

PLOT 

Pat Solitano Jr. (Bradley Cooper) is released from a mental health facility into the care of his mother Dolores (Jacki Weaver) and father Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro) after eight months of treatment for bipolar disorder. Pat soon learns that his wife, Nikki, has moved away and his father is out of work and resorting to illegal bookmaking to earn money to start a restaurant. Pat is determined to get his life back on track and reconcile with Nikki, who obtained a restraining order against him after the violent episode that sent him away.

While talking to his court-mandated therapist Dr. Patel (Anupam Kher), Pat explains again why he was hospitalized. Coming home early from his high school teaching job, noticing clothes thrown on the floor and his wedding song—Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie Amour"—playing, he had found Nikki in the shower with another man, who told him he should leave. Enraged, he beat the man nearly to death. Despite this, Pat doesn't believe he needs medication to manage his condition.

At dinner with his friend Ronnie (John Ortiz), he meets Ronnie's sister-in-law, Tiffany Maxwell (Jennifer Lawrence), a recent widow who just lost her job. Pat and Tiffany develop an odd friendship through their shared neuroses, and he sees an opportunity to communicate with Nikki through her. Tiffany offers to deliver a letter to Nikki, if in return he will be her partner in an upcoming dance competition. He reluctantly agrees and the two begin a rigorous practice regimen over the following weeks. Pat believes the competition will be a good way to show Nikki he has changed and become a better man. Tiffany gives Pat a typed reply from Nikki, in which she cautiously hints there may be a chance for a reconciliation between them.

Things go well for Pat until his father asks him to attend a Philadelphia Eagles game he has bet virtually all of his money on, as a "good-luck charm." Pat skips practice with Tiffany to attend the game, but is dragged into a fight with racist thugs attacking his psychiatrist and brother, and is hauled away by police. The Eagles lose the game and Pat Sr. is furious. Tiffany arrives, berates Pat, and points out that the way she "reads the signs," the Eagles do better when she and Pat are together, as they won every game they played on occasions when Pat and Tiffany spent time together. Pat Sr., now convinced that Pat being with Tiffany is actually good luck, makes a parlay with his gambling friend that if the Eagles win their game against the Dallas Cowboys, and if Pat and Tiffany score at least a 5 out of 10 in their dance competition, he will win back double the money he lost on the first bet. Pat is reluctant to participate in the dance contest under those conditions and goes outside, and re-reads Nikki's letter, over and over. Tiffany and Pat's father decide to persuade Pat by telling him that Nikki will be there.

Pat, Tiffany, and everyone else arrive at the competition on the night of the football game. Tiffany is horrified to discover that Nikki is in the audience. Pat finds Tiffany, who has been drinking with a man who was trying to pick her up, and practically hauls her onto the dance floor, where they perform their routine. Before they dance, the Eagles win their game and at the conclusion of their set, they score exactly an average of 5 points.

Pat and Tiffany are elated. Amid cheers from his family and confused looks from the crowd, Pat approaches Nikki and speaks quietly into her ear. Tiffany sees this and storms off. Pat leaves Nikki behind after only a short conversation, intent on finding Tiffany. Pat Sr. informs him that Tiffany left, and tells him that she loves him right now and that it will be a sin if he doesn't reach out to this moment that life has given him. Pat tells his father that he loves him, then chases after Tiffany and tells her he knows she forged Nikki's letter. He confesses he has loved her from the moment he met her but has taken a long time to realize it and they kiss. They become a couple and Pat Sr. opens a restaurant with the money he has won.

TRAILER 

REVIEW 

Every single one of us is at least a little fucked up mentally. Obviously some people have worse conditions than others, but deep down there’s something tweaked within all of us – it’s part of the human experience.  And that’s what makes Silver Linings Playbook, the new movie from writer-director David O. Russell based on the novel by Matthew Quick, such an impressive piece of filmmaking: the lead character is described is an undiagnosed bipolar locked up after a violent attack, but his recovery and the sometimes cockeyed support he gets from his loved ones only exposes the fact that none of us are anything close to what could be described as “normal.” 

The film has a main story – a former teacher named Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper) is released from a mental hospital after an eight month stay and tries to win back the affection of his cheating ex-wife (Brea Bee) – but that simple-though-entertaining plot almost fades away in your mind as you watch the fascinating characters who come in and out of Pat's life. Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), who meets our hero after he moves back home, is a recently widowed young woman who coped with her distress by having sex with every person in her office. Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro), Pat’s father, is not just an obsessive Philadelphia Eagles fan, but also a compulsive gambler with OCD tendencies in his extreme superstitiousness. Ronnie (John Ortiz) is Pat’s best friend who is stuck in a marriage with a woman (Julia Stiles) who bosses him around and has completely shredded his confidence. And not only are these characters beautifully illustrated and crafted with depth and personality, Russell utilizes them to their greatest extent, not only fitting them into the larger story seamlessly, but also providing each of them with a full arc to play with. 

The entire movie is impeccably cast. While Cooper is the film’s greatest surprise – evincing his character’s manic episodes with just the proper amount of panic, fear and stress without ever overplaying his hand – and De Niro is fantastic, it’s Lawrence’s turn that you’ll be talking about as you exit the theater. Tiffany is almost as screwed up as Pat, and the young actress plays her with an engaging aggressiveness that lets her dominate every scene she’s in, whether she’s wildly charging out of the side of the screen while Pat is on a run or shutting down Pat Sr. when he suggests that she is “bad juju” for the Eagles. She’s the fourth grade bully who punches you in the arm and tells you to stop being such a wimp, and though you may bruise and have your feelings hurt you still can’t help the overwhelming crush you have on her. 

Russell does it with more than his pen, as his direction perfectly reflects the film’s themes and tones. Throughout the film he makes a point of having the camera come rushing up to actors until its right in their faces. It’s sometimes disorienting, but it creates an atmosphere for the movie and makes you feel as though you’re watching the story through the eyes of the characters. As he has in previous films like The Fighter and Three Kings he mixes tones brilliantly, able to orchestrate emotions with soft and jagged camera movement – and without ever alienating the audience. 

There’s a thin line to walk in crafting a comedy about mental illness. Going about it in the wrong way could not only result in something insensitive, but also foolish and overdone, with characters waving their arms in the air and running down the street with their pants around their ankles. But Russell is simply too good a filmmaker to let that happen. Thanks to his work Silver Linings Playbook isn’t just a great piece of entertainment filled with appealing, fun characters, but also a film that gets how fucked up we all really are.

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