Review: Silver Linings Playbook
By Christine Petralia
Image courtesy of the Weinstein Company
January 13, 2013
There’s a lot going on this film based on the novel by the same name, Silver Linings Playbook. It’s not just a romantic comedy-drama, it’s about love, family, getting over your issues and various mental issues, including bipolar disease.
Pat (Bradley Cooper) is just released from a mental health facility into the custody of her parents after eight months. As he struggles to get back into society, he battles with his bipolar disease. And the home he goes into isn’t exactly good for his illness, as his father Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro) is also slightly bipolar, as he struggles with losing his job and restoring to bookmaking while he saves money to open a restaurant. His mother Delores (Jacki Weaver) just tries to keep peace and order in the house.
As Pat tries to figure out a way to reconcile with his wife Nikki (Brea Bee), his family informs him that she has since moved away and filed a restraining order against him. During his therapy sessions, we learn that the reason he was put in the facility was because he flipped out when he found his wife cheating on him in the shower.
In an attempt to get him back into society and get over Nikki, his friend Ronnie (John Ortiz) and Ronnie’s wife Veronica (Julia Stiles) invite him over for dinner with her sister Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence). The pair doesn’t exactly hit it off and the night ends with Tiffany offering Pat sex, which he declines.
Over time, Pat becomes intrigued by Tiffany, as she keeps running into him while he’s running. It becomes clear that Tiffany is attracted to Pat, but he is so focused on getting Nikki back that he doesn’t realize it. At one point, Tiffany, who has issues of her own as her husband recently died in an accident, basically bribes him by saying she can get a letter to Nikki for him, if he helps her dance in a local competition.
Pat then tries to balance his new friendship, which is clearly helping him cope and get better at channeling his feelings, and his relationship with his father, who keeps guilt tripping him into watching Eagles games with him. Everything comes to a head when Pat Sr. asks Pat to attend an Eagles game with his brother for good luck, as Pat Sr. is banned from the stadium after getting into too many fights. (That is what I meant by his father clearly has anger issues too.) The game is the same day that Pat practices the dance with Tiffany. But Pat Sr. bet all his money that he will put toward the restaurant on the game, so Pat has to go. Well, the crew never makes it to the game because of fighting in the parking lot, and Tiffany heads over to Pat’s house to ream him out. As Pat Sr. blames Tiffany for the Eagles losing, Tiffany points out that ever since Pat starting hanging out with her, all Philly teams have won games. In a double or nothing bet, including a parlay, Pat Sr. and his friend make another bet, not only on the next Eagles game, but on the dance competition. All Pat and Tiffany have to do is get a score of five. However, Pat refuses to compete now, as he doesn’t want to take part in the bets of his father. In a way to entice him to compete, Tiffany and his parents tell Pat that Nikki will be there. However, during the last few weeks of training, Pat realizes that it was Tiffany that wrote the return letter to him, not Nikki. He also realizes he is over Nikki and in love with Tiffany. And of course, everything culminates at the dance competition.
This was such a lovely film. It had everything in it, comedy, drama and romance. Cooper and De Niro are wonderful as people that suffer from bipolar disease. And Weaver does a fantastic job as the woman trying to keep the peace and her family together. And Lawrence, who I’m not a huge fan of, was pretty good as a girl with issues of her own trying to keep it all together as she falls in love again.
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