Silver Linings Playbook
Director: David O. Russell
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro
Length: 122 minutes
Country: USA
Although it’s been out since last November, Silver Linings Playbook has garnered a fair bit of attention due to its massive success during the awards season. It brands itself as a romantic comedy, but the plot is far more involved than many other films within the genre. It is the combination of a fabulous storyline, well-developed characters and an exceptional cast that grants Silver Linings Playbook its stellar reputation.
The film tells the story of Patrick Solitano (Bradley Cooper), who has recently been released from a psychiatric hospital and is desperate to reunite with his ex-wife, Nikki. He moves back in with his parents, and we quickly learn that he is under a restraining order, and cannot show Nikki his changed ways. He meets recently-widowed Tiffany Maxwell (Jennifer Lawrence), who agrees to help him rekindle his relationship with Nikki if he enters a dance competition with her.
Jennifer Lawrence’s performance is outstanding, and this role shows her fantastic flexibility as an actress. She has an innate ability to make you believe that she is Tiffany, and that makes the story all the more relatable. She has impressed critics in other successful films, such as ‘Winter’s Bone’ and ‘The Hunger Games’, but this is her first real foray into romantic comedy. Lawrence handles the role perfectly.
When we first meet Tiffany, she is a self-proclaimed sex addict who was fired from her job after sleeping with everyone in the office. Though Lawrence herself said that she went into the role not understanding Tiffany’s character, her talent of portraying multi-faceted characters allows her to pull it off phenomenally well. Since Tiffany’s development throughout the story is both written and portrayed so well, she becomes a very likeable and relatable character.
Jennifer Lawrence’s performance is outstanding, and this role shows her fantastic flexibility as an actress
The only real drawback of the film is that the plot, though well performed, is a bit muddled. Although it has some key points that differ from the traditional recipe, Silver Linings Playbook is still a rom-com, but not a particularly funny one. It has its moments, but for the most part it is more ‘rom’ than ‘com’. The story is very well written, but I fear that fans of the genre may be a little let down. The cast really do hold this movie together, and if it had a different set of actors, it would never have been nearly as successful as it has.
One of the big downfalls for me was the way in which Nikki was revealed to the audience. The mysterious ex-wife that we have never seen makes her appearance in a rather off-hand manner, dampening what could potentially have been a very dramatic moment. I felt that Pat’s first and only onscreen interaction with Nikki was a little lacking as well. For a moment the audience have been waiting for since the start of the film, it’s a little anticlimactic. In one scene, Pat is whispering sweet nothings in Nikki’s ear, and in the next, he’s running back to Tiffany. An open dialogue about Tiffany with Nikki would have answered a few of the audience’s questions.
The on-screen chemistry between Cooper and Robert De Niro, who plays Pat’s football-fanatic father, is brilliant, and it facilitates a progression in their relationship throughout the film, which could not have been orchestrated by many actors. The evolution from the awkward reunion at the beginning to the understanding father-son dynamic at the end is wonderful to watch, and, dare I say it, rather emotional.
Silver Linings Playbook is a wonderful story, performed brilliantly by all involved, and it thoroughly deserves the praise it has received. If you haven’t watched it yet, you’re missing out. It’s a refreshingly well written rom-com which will make you laugh, cry, and maybe even think a little bit. I imagine it will be a staple classic on DVD shelves for years to come.
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