Silver Linings Playbook

Films about dysfunctional, quirky, and disturbed people are usually very serious dramas that are incredibly depressing and cold, but after watching "Silver Linings Playbook", I found this film to be a smart, funny, dramatic, quirky movie with extremely well delineated characters brimming with dysfunction and at times, in some amazingly subtle ways.

After an eight month stint in a mental health institution in Baltimore, Pat Jr.(Bradley Cooper) gets sprung by his mom, Dolores (Jacki Weaver), but only with the contingency of moving back into his parents', Dolores and Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro) home in Philadelphia. You see, Pat Jr. was institutionalized for beating up the lover of his wife, Nikki (Brea Bee), so knowing this, the institution diagnosed him with having bipolar disorder. Nikki has since left him and has issued a restraining order against him. He doesn't take his medication, claiming it makes him feel 'foggy', but reluctantly goes to his mandatory therapy sessions with Dr. Cliff Patel (Anupam Kher). Pat Jr. feels like he can manage outside if he focuses on the 'silver linings' in life. His goal is to ultimately reunite with Nikki, but in the process, happens to meet a very quirky, dysfunctional woman named Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) which happens to have mental health issues herself. He meets her through his buddy, Ronnie (John Ortiz) and Ronnie's wife, Veronica (Julia Stiles). Veronica is Tiffany's sister, so they meet at a dinner. The rest is who is crazier as their getting to know one another is a bumpy ride at best.

Others to round out the cast are Chris Tucker as Danny, buddy of Pat Jr.'s, Shea Whigham as Jake, Pat Jr.'s brother, Paul Herman as Randy, Pat Sr.'s friend/business partner, and Dash Mihok as Officer Keogh.

This was brilliantly directed by David O. Russell ("Spanking the Monkey" '94, "Flirting with Disaster" '96, "Three Kings" '99, "I Heart Huckabees" '04, "The Fighter" '10). The pacing of this film and the way he was able to get the right amount of intensity out of these actors was perfect. It was also written by Russell which was based on the novel, "The Silver Linings Playbook" by Matthew Quick. This was written in an extremely real format, whereas these characters changed for the better, but not without a lot of stumbling, and there was still a lot of room for improvement--people don't heal overnight.

After viewing this, I now can understand why it has received so many Academy Award nominations, including best picture, actor and actress. It was like looking through someone's window as they're living, it was that convincing. Films about mental health has always been a topic that a lot of people find intriguing, maybe because these mental health characters are so different. But when you couple that with fine acting, writing and directing, how can one go wrong?

Out of 4 Stars: 4                           Rated: R                             122mins.