Silver Linings Playbook is a spectacular film. David O’Russell’s picture is beautifully, sensitively and light heartedly delivered. The film opens with Bradley Cooper’s Pat Solatino trying to find his feet after being released from a psychiatric facility. He meets Jennifer Lawrence’s equally troubled Tiffany and together they embark on a journey of friendship and commitment. Pat’s family life is as manic as his personal, his OCD father played impeccably by Robert De Niro is a gambler supported by his gentle wife Dolores (Jacki Weaver.)
The film’s power lays in it’s portrayal of the two main characters and the acting from Cooper and Lawrence. Both characters are believable yet they manage to remain in the realms of fiction, preventing the film from getting too gritty. The issue of mental health is dealt with head on but with a smile. An example being the character of Danny, a friend of Pat’s from hospital, who continuously escapes from the unit by telling everyone that they let him out.
The film reminds me of American Beauty and it’s effect is the same in that your expectations of the film shift and change with each scene. It’s perhaps not as aesthetically driven as the previous but it is definitely a winter film not to be missed.
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