Silver Linings Playbook

Pat is curiously confident and upbeat for someone who just got out from a mental hospital and under a restraining order from his wife. That’s because he’s determined to fix the damage he’s done to his life and surprise everyone by moving forward and upward. His motto is, “Excelsior!” Do you know what stage of bipolar disorder he’s in?

The number one task is restoring his marriage with his wife. After they divorced, he beat up her new boyfriend, but water under the bridge. Pat (Bradley Cooper) swears his parents, Pat Sr. and Dolores, (Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver), that everything will be fine. They’re not so sure. One of the pros of “Silver Linings Playbook,” the 2012 comedy by David O. Russell, is how Dolores is a stable and caring woman and has had so much experience in dealing with compulsive behavior, because her husband is a huge fan of the Philadelphia Eagles. Having been banned from the Eagles stadium for fighting, Pat Sr. now watches restlessly on his TV, convinced that the Eagles will win only if his countless fantasies are fulfilled.

Pat Jr. in desperation falls for Tiffany, played by Jennifer Lawrence, a young widow in the neighborhood. Roger Ebert noted in his review, “Lawrence appears here much transformed from the woman we saw in “Winter's Bone” and “The Hunger Games.” Still only 22, she looks softer, sweeter and somehow prettier than before, yet she plays Tiffany as all edges and elbows, who can understand Pat because she’s crazy herself.” People call her promiscuous, and she agrees. She’s ticked off about Pat because he continues to think about his ex-wife, played by Brea Bee – and also because a lot of her value to him is that’s she’s still in contact with the other woman.

In supporting roles, we meet Danny (Chris Tucker), Pat’s patient friend from the hospital, and Dr. Cliff Patel (Bollywood actor, Anupam Kher), his therapist. Danny’s worried that Pat is not taking his medication. Ebert said, “Dr. Patel plays an increasingly common type in American movies, the Indian immigrant who seems to embody certain stereotypes and then is revealed to be completely assimilated.”

Tiffany thinks she and Pat should make out. Pat disagrees. He doesn’t want to be unfaithful to his ex-wife. Tiffany’s eyes narrow. We see that Pat doesn’t have a chance. Ebert said,

This all builds up into a classic screwball comedy situation in which two bets are inspired — one involving an Eagles-Cowboys game and the other involving a ballroom dancing contest that Tiffany has forced Pat to join her in with a form of emotional blackmail.

How these bets play out I will, of course, not hint. I will note that Pat, in keeping with family tradition, gets in trouble at the game for fighting. Don’t you sometimes wish movies watched other movies? Imagine Pat running into the Patton Oswalt character from “Big Fan.” How cool would that be?

I love actors. I’ve been on an almost lifelong journey with Robert De Niro, and feel intimately familiar with him as an actor (not as a person). Here his work unobtrusively charmed my socks off. He’s harmlessly obsessed with the Eagles, gratefully in love with his wife and cluelessly supportive of his son, who he doesn’t realize is an apple who has fallen very close to the tree.

One of the creative and type of brave accomplishments of Russell’s screenplay (inspired by a novel by Matthew Quick) is the way it requires both father and son to face and deal with their medical issues and against all odds finds a way to do that through both an Eagles game and a dance contest. Ebert noted, “We’re fully aware of the plot conventions at work here, the wheels and gears churning within the machinery, but with these actors, this velocity and the oblique economy of the dialogue, we realize we don’t often see it done this well.” “Silver Linings Playbook” is so good, it could be an amazing old classic.

I had heard about this movie, but I didn’t really hear people talk about this. Then, when I was trying to find something to watch when I was exercising, and, I believe, I saw this on Netflix. I’m with everyone when I say that this is a good movie to watch. I can’t say how accurate this movie is with bipolar disorder, so only those who have it can tell. However, Cooper, De Niro, and Lawrence all play their roles very well. I think De Niro has a child who has bipolar, but I don’t know for sure. Julia Stiles is in here playing Lawrence’s older sister. I find it great that Cooper and De Niro are working together, as De Niro was Cooper’s inspiration to be an actor. Check this out if you haven’t because this is one to see.

Next week, I will be looking at another good movie to check out in the finale of “Robert De Niro Month.” Sorry for the late posting. I fell asleep because I was so tired from work.