Directed by: David O. Russell
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro
Rated R, 122 minutes
Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper star in “Silver Linings Playbook.” (Courtesy photo)
And now for another cute movie from David O. Russell, who likes his cuteness masked by a lot of violence and family drama. Not that I mean to belittle “Silver Linings Playbook.” Like Russell’s last movie, “The Fighter,” “Playbook” is a showcase of great writing and acting and the sort of Hollywood ending that makes us love going to the movies, even if we can see it coming from a mile away.
Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper, “The Hangover”) returns home from a mental hospital after an eight-and-a-half month stint, which he was forced to undergo because he had a violent episode involving his wife and her lover. Now, with a restraining order keeping him away from his wife and the high school where they taught, Pat goes back to stay with his parents while he gets his life in order, which for him means trying to convince his wife that he’s better now.
His parents’ house proves not to be the comforting environment he needs, given his father’s (Robert De Niro, “Goodfellas”) similar self-control problems and obsessive-compulsive disorder regarding the Philadelphia Eagles, and Pat finds that his own lack of anger management and bipolar tendencies are making him just as dysfunctional as he was before.
By chance, though, he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence, “The Hunger Games”), the younger sister of Pat’s friend’s wife. Tiffany’s husband died recently, and in a period of emotional instability, she lost control of her sexuality and ended up dealing with her sadness through, shall we say, excessive depravity. But now she, too, is trying to make good again, and Pat finds that they can help each other out, both to prove to others that they’re better and also to prove it to themselves.
This movie simultaneously shows a lot of maturity in its plot and characters as well as a good deal of immaturity, which makes it both immensely enjoyable as well as a little strange. It’s subtle, but at the same time some parts are excessively straightforward. Russell’s screenplay hits a lot of high notes and creates characters that are more than entertaining to watch, but also contains several awkward moments that are meant to feel significant. The example that comes to mind is the recurring presence of letters—letters that Pat writes to his wife, a letter that he gets in return, and, strangest of all, a letter he writes to Tiffany that he then recites out loud while she reads it. These sorts of forced symbolic moments saddle what is otherwise a terrific script, which could disappoint some.
Jacki Weaver and Robert De Niro in a scence from “Silver Linings Playbook.” (Courtesy photo)
However, across the board, the actors are at the top of their game, which makes it hard to be disappointed. Cooper and Lawrence give the best performances of their respective careers. While Cooper is charming and believable as the frustrated optimist searching for silver linings in his messed-up life, Lawrence is especially powerful, playing a young widow haunted by guilt and feelings she can’t express. Either lead is a pleasure to watch, and together they’re hard not to watch.
They also hold their own among great actors from the older generation, namely Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver (“Animal Kingdom”), who are also entertaining as Pat’s loving but totally dysfunctional parents. I only wish Weaver’s character, Dolores, were developed more; throughout the course of the film, we get to see how Pat’s instability is inherited from his father, but we don’t see enough of Dolores to see the mother-son connection. De Niro, meanwhile, is very good as an obsessive-compulsive and utterly superstitious Eagles fan. His performance marks a welcome change from the last several years of his career, which have seen him futzing around in the “Meet the Parents” series. He can still act, which is good to know.
As for Russell, the director has hit his stride, proving himself to be an excellent director of humorous family dramas. The power in this film comes from the fact that he doesn’t forget that real life always has humor, even when things are at their grittiest and most painful. It’s fitting that he chose to adapt a novel about finding silver linings, and that he has adapted it with no pretense of sophistication or neatness. Life for Pat and Tiffany isn’t clean, and that’s ok. We still like them, and that’s what matters.
Danny Eisenberg is a 2010 graduate of the Bromfield School and is currently a student at the University of Pennsylvania.
