Mental illness is a terrible thing. It comes in many forms, with many names, and affects many people- but there are very few who understand it. To the general public, those who are mentally unwell are dangerous and scary, or, barring that, tragic lost causes that have no way of supporting themselves anymore. This is reflected in our movies: if a film character is "crazy", chances are that means they're either a criminal mastermind, a deranged murderer, or a babbling man-child locked up in a padded cell.
Silver Linings Playbook breaks that trend.
Pat (Bradley Cooper) is being let out of a mental institution after an eight month stay. He was in there because of his previously-undiagnosed bipolar disorder, which was finally discovered after he caught his wife, Nikki, cheating on him. Needless to say, he didn't take it well, and responded to the situation using his fists.
Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) is a tragically young widow, whose husband's death led her to dive deep into a depression, and attempt to cope by becoming a sex addict. She's since managed to control her bodily urges, but remains highly depressed and emotionally distant.
The two meet, by chance, at dinner, at the home of a mutual friend. Neither of them are particularly adept at making friends, especially in their current emotional states, but the two eventually manage to hit it off. Pat's goal is to reconcile with Nikki (who has moved and filed a restraining order), and is getting in shape, becoming an avid reader, becoming more emotionally open, and doing other such things in the hopes of being able to impress her. Tiffany offers to deliver a letter to Nikki, under the condition that Pat enter a dance competition with her. Thus, they begin to spend an hour or so of their days together, discussing life and training avidly.
Pat and Tiffany are incredible characters, brought to life impeccably by Cooper and Lawrence. Pat's openness, eagerness, and unending optimism makes him endearing, but all that barely serves to cover up his frightening and depressing neuroses. His obsession with Nikki becomes very disturbing, as he judges seemingly everything he does based on whether or not she would like it. He becomes unhinged at the slightest offenses- a scene in which he rages to his parents (Robert DeNiro and Jacki Weaver) over the simple matter of his wedding video is terrifying. Tiffany, by contrast, piques the audience's interest by being very reserved and silent. She behaves like a socially-awkward teenager, stumbling through her conversations and tripping over her words. Her strange and often confusing behavior make for a character that you really want to know more about. And when you do find out her story... it's far from a pretty one.
Unfortunately, though the characters are amazing, the story surrounding them is less so. Underneath all of the complex layers of excellent writing and acting, the film's basic plot is really your basic romantic comedy fare, minus most of the comedy. Boy meets girl, boy and girl don't like each other at first, boy and girl eventually come to like each other, boy and girl get together, boy and girl discover some kind of conflict, boy and girl resolve conflict, boy and girl kiss. You can guess at almost everything that's going to happen before it does, which is common in a lot of low-rent romcoms, but you'd think a film like Sliver Linings Playbook would be above such things.
Silver Linings Playbook is worth a look. Its frank treatment of instability and relationships is commendable, and executed very well. Just don't expect a spectacular story to go along with it.
***
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