Review of Silver Linings Playbook (2012) by Nedryerson1 — 22 Feb 2013

Silver Linings Playbook is a peculiar film, because is a romantic comedy that breaks all the previews standards of that genre. Basically is the typical love story, but the interesting thing is that all the cast have a psychological problem.

Starting by the protagonist couple, we see Pat (unexpectedly well played by Bradley Cooper) a bipolar that speaks before thinking, then Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence as marvelous as always) a widow with borderline personality.

The dynamic that is generated between them is based in learning how to live a normal life and be adapted to social conventions. The thing is that consequence of their condition the family and friends attempt to control their lives (the topic of the great power of the family is also noticeable in The Fighter).

The family of the protagonist also is a dilemma; the father is an addicted to gambling with OCD and felt guilty because how his son turned out; the mother has an extreme necessity that all the relationships of the family maintain in order, living in denial; the brother lives with a superiority complex, but enters to a contradiction because of Pat.

Then we have the friend of the protagonist who has problems with his wife so he release tension breaking stuff at his garage with hard music; the friend of the hospital invents excuses to run away and the doctor tries to fit in the American society.

This great cast is amazingly well managed by David O. Russell, the only problem is that at the end the movie returns to the stereotypes of simple romantic comedies.