Silver Linings Playbook: Why the limited release?

Independent movies can be such fun when all goes according to plan. Every year we are blessed with low-key films that are refreshingly good, but thanks to the quirks of the business are extremely hard to find. Unfortunately for me, Silver Linings Playbook has been that particular hard-to-find indie film this year. The film was given a limited release earlier on this year in October, but I held out, refusing to make a trip to an overpriced cinema in Columbus to watch something I was sure would be out soon on wide release. I was wrong, coming back to Toledo this Christmas break only to discover the nearest showing was from whence I had come. Today, after nearly three months of annoyance I can finally say I have seen it, and it seems as though the wait was worth it. 

Silver Linings follows the story of Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper) a former high school history teacher suffering from bipolar disorder who after serving eight months in a mental facility comes home to try and reconcile with his estranged wife, who as luck would have it has claimed a restraining order against him. The task is made more complicated by the introduction of the-ever-so mysterious Tiffany  (Jennifer Lawrence) into his life, not to mention the extremely imperfect nature of Pat's family.  

A good friend of mine once asked why I even bother watching romantic comedies such as these as the plot can be easily deciphered most of the time. In some regards he is right- Silver Linings is at the end of the day,  a "boy with problems meets girl with problems and they help each other" movie, but I am all about the how, and it is in that regard that Silver Linings is fun and unique.  Director David O. Russell achieves this by using a great cast to its full potential, each character showing us his grand illustrated point about mental illness- that we are all in some way broken. 

 

Robert De Niro is predictably great as Pat's dad: a neurotic, superstitious fan-turned-bookie whose beloved Philadelphia Eagles are the focus of his life. Chris Tucker, in his first non Rush Hour movie role since 1997, provides some nice comedic fodder as Pat's "black best friend", habitually escaping from the mental facility to visit under the justification of fabricated legal knowledge. Despite the films great ensemble, with Jackie Weaver (Pat's mum Dolores) and Anupam Kher (Pat's therapist) not to be denied their fair share of acknowledgments, the whole project simply could not work if Bradley Cooper's performance was average. Hell, even the most devoted HIMYM fans will admit that no matter how good everyone else is, watching the plight of a central character for whom you feel little to no love gets old after seven seasons. 

I love HIMYM, but God knows I don't watch it for Ted. 

 I would like to admit that I have not always been a Bradley Cooper fan, although the past two years have seen me slowly become a believer. Cooper's ability to portray a person so conflicted  exceeded  my expectations, leading me to feel truly uncomfortable anytime Pat struggled in the film. Whether it was his meltdowns when hearing his wedding song or his continued determination to see and talk to his wife, there existed a depth to Cooper's acting that I would never have thought possible. What is best is that Cooper simply feeds into a cast synergy that is already so high, inviting the others to create emotionally gripping scenes in a movie that still somehow manages to stay relatively light and cheerful.  Above all the drama and the comedy in Pat's life, the also deeply troubled Tiffany flits in and out like the pleasing aroma of an intoxicating perfume on a passerby, commanding each scene she's in and owning every room . I left the theatre knowing that  for 122 minutes I had been in love with a woman, and her name is Jennifer Lawrence. 

Silver Linings Playbook is one of those films that I will often sit down to watch on a miserably boring Sunday afternoon; light but yet thought provoking, predictable and yet refreshing.