Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook

Have you watched it yet? There they are, in cinemas all over the country, teenagers, men and women watching a movie with a suitable title and many of the key ingredients of a standard Hollywood “feel good movie”. There’s a good chance they will come out of the cinema with a smile on their faces. The movie they are all soaked up in is Silver Linings Playbook, directed by David O Russell, on the verge between comedy and drama and mostly captivating.

The story opens with the release from a mental institution of Patrick Solitano after 8 months’ incarceration. He’s played by Bradley Cooper, currently best known from the Hangover movies. His character, Pat was diagnosed as bipolar after beating up a high school teacher whom he found having a shower with his wife. The condition of his release is that he takes his medication and he lives with his father, now running an illegal bookmaking business in his parlor, and his devoted mother. Meanwhile, he must stay away from his wife and make regular visits to a humorous Indian psychiatrist. The majority of the people Pat meets in his Philadelphia suburb are of obsessive sorts. Most significant among these people is the young widow Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) who lives in the garage of her parents’ home, which she’s turned into a dance studio. An old school friend of Patricks’ invites him over to have dinner and Tiffany reunites with him over dinner as they exchange notes about the medication they’re taking. Her project is to involve Pat in an annual dance contest.

Russell constantly manages to retain a comic tone without forgetting about the characters pains and anxieties. He involves us so closely that we become emotional participants.

Perhaps the film is a bit cheesy towards the end and it briefly turns into solemn when Pat reunites with his brother, but that’s just a minor criticism of a hugely enjoyable film.

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