REVIEW: Silver Linings Playbook

By HTS Staff on November 24, 2012

Silver Linings Playbook has been getting Oscar buzz, especially after winning the Festival Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival (previous winners include The King’s Speech and Slumdog Millionaire. The movie, which was originally supposed to open wide this past Wednesday (November 21), only opened in around 400 theaters due to general lack of awareness. But, clearly, this is a film worth driving a few extra miles to see, if The Weinstein Company decides not to expand.

The film is about a man named Pat (Bradley Cooper) struggling with bipolar. After catching his wife with another man and almost killing him, Pat was sent to a court ordered mental institution for 8 months, where he was diagnosed. After his mother (Jacki Weaver) takes him out, Pat tries to cope with his illness, while also trying to win his wife back. Meanwhile, Pat and his father try to fix their relationship through football. But he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), who has had problems of her own after her husband of three years passed away unexpectedly. Their relationship changes after Tiffany convinces Pat to help her out with a dance routine.

The movie sounds like it would be a mess: a romantic dramedy, with some football and dancing. But the movie works. The film really does have something for everyone. While, yes, the relationship between Tiffany and Pat seems to take the forefront, the movie has a lot of substance. Pat’s relationship with his father (Robert De Niro) is heartbreaking, especially one scene where his father cries. Pat struggles with his illness, but you end up loving him and rooting for him, despite some of the things he says and does.

The film is charming, heartbreaking, heart warming, funny, and smart. Silver Linings Playbook also showcases the talents of all the actors, especially Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, who we see a new side of. I’d be surprised if this movie wasn’t nominated for basically everything at the Oscars.