Film Review: Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook. Rated M (mature themes, coarse language, sexual references and violence). 122 minutes. Written and directed by David O Russell. Based on the novel by Matthew Quick.

Verdict: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest meets Strictly Ballroom.

Hot on the heels of Flight’s compelling study of alcohol and drug dependency comes an equally difficult, but less successful, study of living with mental health issues. Russell’s respectful screenplay is, admirably, completely lacking in sensationalism. It is more concerned with how extraordinary circumstances can impact on the lives of ordinary people. But even ordinary people can rise to previously unscaleable heights to take on the challenges – perilously high stakes that are not in play in Silver Linings Playbook.

Soon after being released from hospital into the care of his parents Dolores (Jacki Weaver) and Pat (Robert De Niro), Pat Jnr (Bradley Cooper) meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), who is struggling to come to terms with the death of her husband. In return for helping him deliver a letter of reconciliation to his ex-wife, Tiffany insists that Pat partner her in an upcoming dance competition – the results of which will change the course of everybody’s lives in countless ways.

While there are certainly some great moments (courtesy of De Niro, Lawrence and Weaver), it’s difficult to ignore the nagging feeling that Cooper (The Hangover films, Limitless) is miscast in a role that might have been significantly more involving. As it stands, there’s ‘angry Pat’ and ‘confused Pat’ – a problem that not only rapidly deflates the dramatic and/or comedic potential, but that also belies the vast complexities of lives shared with mental illness, whether clinically diagnosed or not.

Russell (The Fighter, I Heart Huckabees, Three Kings) is a fine director of actors, and Lawrence (The Hunger Games) benefits enormously from the obvious levels of instinctive trust. The scene where she answers Pat Snr’s concerns about the amount of time she is spending with his son is a standout. Weaver’s Oscar®-nominated performance (her second nomination after 2010’s Animal Kingdom), powered by unflagging optimism in the face of potential disaster, is one of her best to date – but when the great De Niro perches on the side of his sleeping son’s bed and confesses how he wished he had been a better father, all bets are off.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.