Silver Linings Playbook

The protagonists of screwball comedies acted crazy. The protagonists of Silver Linings Playbook are crazy. Of course, within the boundaries of American indie romances, i.e. they are characters with eccentric behaviour and minimal psychological depth, and they are defined only by their interactions with their immediate surroundings. He loses his nerve here and there, she has nymphomaniacal tendencies, and both of them have lost someone. Now they need to emotionally fill up the vacant space and find their lost balance (for example, in dancing). It’s not necessary to know more than that to understand the story and to get a good feeling in the end. Russell placed his bets on good actors and sharp verbal exchanges, so it’s not surprising that the film’s highlights include the scene in which several mentally unstable characters shout at each other in front of a shaky camera. However, this is just another display of “shaky cam” syndrome. The nervous camerawork is used in line with Pat’s gradually subsiding uneasiness. The scenes with the psychiatrist are calmer and the camera movements gain a certain harmony with the gradual coming together of the central couple, which, however, has long been motivated by selfishness, so a certain nervousness and uncertainty persist. In other scenes, the camera points out what the characters realise only later (the reading of the letter), thus creating tension and raising expectations, which at least make the path to the predictable ending more enjoyable. It’s pleasing that, unlike many contemporary comedies, the film isn’t made up only of scenes and one-liners and that it also has a carefully thought-out structure (a vaulted dramatic arc, if you like), without dead spots and with a climax in which all of the motifs are conscientiously put to good use. The fact that the protagonist doesn’t have his behaviour fully under control and that he has to learn how to dance because of his “treatment” does not in any way weaken the thoroughly androcentric narrative (we barely get to know Tiffany’s parents; Pat’s parents condition the denouement), and in other respects the screenplay is revisionist only in relation to screwball comedies. Social norms are undermined by the transfer of the treatment process from the institutional context to the outside world, or rather the denial of the dichotomy between “normality” and “madness”. Unlike with classic screwball comedies, the realistic context here (treatment facility, pills, aggression) make us aware that the characters behave differently than is customary in their world. However, neither one of them has to enter a more normal world. In other words, everyone is crazy; it’s just a matter of finding the right one. 75% (02/25/2013)

Based on the responses from abroad, Silver Linings Playbook looked like one of the most attractive of this year’s Oscar contenders, unfortunately though, I wasn’t really sold on it. The messy web of relationships of a bunch of weird, crazy and neurotic characters, lead by Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper (both of whom I consider very talented young actors), didn’t win my heart. If I look at it positively, it’s still some nice brisk fun, but nothing more than that. Emotionally, the film missed me by a wide margin, to the point that I’m not even sure when I was supposed to feel any emotions, because the relationship between the main characters happens as if by the way, especially on the part of Cooper. They meet, they argue, they dance and boom. Chris Tucker is insufferable. 7/10 (01/13/2013)

A wonderfully tasteful affair, at times almost "P.T. Andersonian" in terms of the power of identifying with the characters emotionally/psychologically. It may seem that the more insane the characters you create in the script, the more intense the final impression will be from a certain point of view, and the overall structure of Silver Linings Playbook encourages this in its own way. However, it struck me more as a kind of sweet, sensitive, and sometimes harsh story (harsh only in terms of the emotions transferred to the viewer) about people who to be sure are "different" in certain ways (we even have tons of charts, names of diseases, and various medications for them), but it is through this "otherness" that a "normal" non-bipolar person can observe that even your average lunatic can be much more perceptive, sensitive, and insightful in many other ways than those who, according to the charts, are not officially crazy. Here I can nicely pick up on what David O. Russell was (in my opinion) really trying to say with this film – namely, that when a normal person has some strong excess in behavior or thinking, it is almost always very difficult to get them to renounce and erase something that was/is important to them, even if it was the source of future psychic disturbance. I really liked how David O. Russell demonstrated through the supporting characters that the more mentally and morally deranged may very well be the officially "normal" people whose completely tactless and boorish behavior bring down and humiliate the officially "abnormal" individuals. Silver Linings Playbook is not a film that glorifies crazy people or a film that presents emotionally vulnerable and unbalanced people as beings who are superior in their humanity to the officially "normal" ones. Silver Linings Playbook is the story of the gradual coming together of two terribly shattered human souls whose loved ones cannot help them (and if they try, they only do so very convulsively and stiffly) and instead try foolishly, but certainly with good intentions, to keep them apart. This is a superbly acted, directed and, above all, sensitively made film that is, in the purest sense of the word, a madcap romance that ultimately warms the heart beautifully in the space of two hours. And Jennifer Lawrence may not be a textbook beauty like Angelina Jolie, Natalie Portman, or Megan Fox, but she exudes such an aura that I would quickly fall in love with her (and with me she wouldn't even have to crawl on all fours). (03/02/2013)

An excellent actors’ film. The Oscar hype may be exaggerated in this case, and the story offers no memorable authorial ideas, but it's a heavy-handed feel-good film with beautifully drawn characters that, for me, represents one of the most honest depictions of an ordinary American family in recent years. Where authenticity commits suicide, it's fully supported by the palpable chemistry between Bradley and the divine Jennifer, which (the chemistry) had me glued to my seat, and who (Jennifer) stirred my remaining teenage hormones and left no doubt that she was more deserving of an Oscar than any actress not named Meryl Streep. It’s a pure caricature, as is usual with O. Russel, but it’s funny and, judging by the enthusiastic reception, obviously good. (03/29/2013)

For some, Silver Linings Playbook will be a barking drama where characters merely argue, shoot diagnoses at each other, and search for happiness through priorities that are not entirely understandable. For me, Playbook is a confession, an awakening, the power of life, and a shouted desire for happiness. If I were so bold as to say that at the end of the movie, I was feeling that no matter what happens, I've got a chance to prove what is most important to me in life, it would sound like the most worn-out cliché. But it was Pat and Tiffany who got me into this sincere mood – from the first monologue to the captivating ending. (02/08/2013)