Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to everyone. Julie and I spent Christmas Eve afternoon with Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro in a likely Academy Award contender, Silver Linings Playbook.
Silver Linings Playbook (Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jackie Weaver) – There was a moment well over an hour into Silver Linings Playbook that this film became exceptional. I had never experienced that before. An interesting but dialogue-heavy study of a man with mental illness brought on by his wife’s infidelity became a warm-hearted comedy-drama in an instant.
David O. Russell (The Fighter) directed and wrote the screenplay (he also penned and helmed I Heart Huckabees, Three Kings, and Spanking the Monkey) and he almost missed. Fortunately, the actors save the day. Bradley Cooper plays the bi-polar guy who can’t get over his wife’s cheating. The film opens with Pat in an institution where he has gone for treatment. His mother (Jackie Weaver) springs him against doctor’s orders and takes him home. His father (Robert De Niro) is a borderline obsessive-compulsive who lost his job and is now a bookmaker. Dad is an over-the-line Philadelphia Eagles fan who has been banned from games due to his temper so we are led to believe that Pat’s mental health issues stem from his father.
Pat wants to get cured without the drugs that make him “foggy” so that he can win his wife back. He is driven by his desire to reunite with her. But Pat is his own worst enemy. His friends (played by John Ortiz and Julia Stiles in small roles that shine) fix him up with Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a young widow whose own mental problems led her to (let’s call it) promiscuous behavior. These two wackos (wow, is that politically incorrect!) seemingly don’t like each other but start hanging out. After all, Pat knows she is a possible avenue to his ex-wife, and Tiffany sees Pat as a handsome guy who is more screwed up than she is. In a strange plot turn, she also sees him as a possible dance partner for the annual Philadelphia dance competition in which she has always wanted to compete. (See what I mean by bad script-writing? But to be fair, this movie is based on a book by the same name written by Matthew Quick. I’ll bet the writing in the book is much more layered with a less sophomoric plot than Russell’s screenplay.)
But just as the film starts to drag, there appears a wonderful scene. It takes place in the parents’ home right after an Eagles’ loss. Dad lost large bets on the Eagles; Pat has gotten into a big fight through no fault of his own at the stadium; and Tiffany comes to the house to confront Pat about standing her up for dance rehearsal. That scene energizes the film, and it is pure magic after that.
Lawrence is every bit the talent that earned her an Academy Award nomination for Winter’s Bone at the age of 20. Combined with her box office hit, The Hunger Games, earlier this year, she may be the hottest young actress in Hollywood. She “eats the lens” as they say in the movie business, which to me means that you can’t take your eyes off her in every scene she is in. De Niro could have been wasted in a role like Pat Sr. but he flashes that brilliance we haven’t seen for awhile in a couple of scenes here with his son near the end of the film. Cooper tries admirably to shed his “Sexiest Man Alive” image, showing real acting ability. He may not be great here but he carries the film until Lawrence takes over.
At its heart, Silver Linings Playbook is a chick flick but it has depth and charm while making a strong statement about the personal ravages of mental illness. With strong critics’ reviews and high viewer ratings, Silver Linings Playbook is a bad title for achieving big box office (it has only earned $16 million in its first month on a budget of over $21 million). It is a very good independent film whose third act is worth the slow pace of the first two. Expect to see Lawrence receive an Oscar nomination and the movie might get one of the (up to) 10 Best Picture nods (no thanks to the screenplay).