Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

 

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Director: David O. Russell

Stars: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker

Short Review, no spoilers

If you - as I was when I finally forced myself to watch this film – are cynical about how well Hollywood treats the subject of mental illness, as well as the talent and likeability of Bradley Cooper and/or Jennifer Lawrence, I implore you to watch this film. Thankfully and for once, there is humour that isn’t mocking, frankness without tragedy, and a lack of oversimplification or cliché. And the chemistry between the two leads is a delight.

Full Review (spoilers)

Finally, a movie that is sympathetic to the experience of mental illness, and a mainstream Hollywood one at that. Also, one that celebrates the ordinary rather than the freakish, and one where the comic and the tragic is balanced well. There is poignancy in the strained but loving relations between norms and sufferers, as well as acknowledgement of the humorous irony of the banal and absurd often brought together in experiences of mental illness. Like Pat’s parents’ puzzlement at his wearing of a garbage bag, and the friend from the psychiatric unit who obsesses about his hairline, all is addressed the same and sometimes it’s funny but not cruelly or patronisingly, only merely part of the busy mosaic that is a sufferer’s ‘normal.’

Bradley Cooper’s believable and charming performance as Pat provides a welcome portrayal of a young man with mental illness that isn’t a stereotype but a regular guy who loves football and Metallica. When Pat meets Tiffany, (Jennifer Lawrence) a young woman struggling with the death of her husband, they bond over medications and a shared experience of not fitting in. Although perhaps unrealistic at times – it seems wholly ill-advised to play along with one of a sufferer’s chief concerns in the way that Pat is encouraged to – it’s movie-forgivable in the context of the building romance between Pat and Tiffany.

The humour and life lessons are not for the sufferers only and there is great satisfaction in Pat’s recognition of the comparative troubles of his relatives and friends. Pat advises his friend to get help for himself when he confides marital problems to him, and calls out his father’s own compulsions over remote controls – “That’s OCD, that’s crazy.” Showing that angst and weird behaviour is all part of a spectrum, the film also highlights how the diagnosed are forced to accept these issues in themselves while apparent norms think they’re above such quandaries or try to bury them.

A great deal of the success of Silver Linings Playbook is owed to a complimentary collection of sensitively delivered performances that also have enough bite to prevent over-sentimentality. Robert De Niro as Pat’s dad is particularly worthy of mention, displaying in one particular scene a disarming and heartbreaking vulnerability rarely seen in the legendary tough guy. I would go as far as to say it is one of his best and deserved an Oscar.

In keeping things matter-of-fact and not melodramatic or cartoonish, the build-up and finale of a dance contest provides the happy ending that pleasingly celebrates being average – literally. Tiffany is a good but amateur dancer who teaches beginner Pat to partner her in a contest, something she never got to do with her husband, and with the promise of delivering a letter to Pat’s estranged wife in exchange. Avoiding a spectacular zero to hero denouement, we are merely presented with creativity over professionalism, as the couple perform an exhilarating and eclectic mix of styles choreographed by Tiffany. This includes a rock out to Fell in Love with a Girl by The White Stripes and a cheeky and unconventionally intimate clinch on the end of a lift. Seeing them pull it off is a joy in itself, but this is doubled when they all wildly celebrate a perfectly average score of 5s all round – the numbers needed to win a bet that would finance Pat’s father’s restaurant enterprise. The audience and other contestants naturally look bewildered, unaware that sometimes striving for what seems to be merely average is more valuable than you could imagine.