Returning to the theme of a loveable, east coast loser striving for redemption (following his 2010 Oscar winner, The Fighter) David O. Russell shoulders writer/director duties, turns Bradley Cooper into an actor, and gives Robert De Niro his About Schmidt moment with Silver Linings Playbook. The acting of Silver Linings is probably the highlight of the film, and no one in the cast shines brighter than Jennifer Lawrence as Tiffany. She gives a flat-out terrific performance, and is, as a paunchy Chris Tucker so astutely puts it, “F for Fine.”
Silver Linings relates the depressing and occasionally hilarious story of Pat (Cooper) a former teacher who has spent the past eight months in a mental hospital after savagely beating a man who he had discovered was having an affair with his wife. Pat has bi-polar disorder, but he also has a philosophy of trying to always look for the good in the situation, a belief that by staying positive a “silver lining” will potentially appear in even the bleakest of circumstances. The film begins with Pat returning home from the institution to live with his parents, played beautifully by two acting legends, Jackie Weaver and Robert De Niro, and attempting to get his life together.
Pat is essentially good-natured, that is, he truly wants to regain some stability after losing everything due to his violence. However, he is also defiant, battling with his parents over taking his medication, and obsessed with reaching out to his estranged wife, despite the restraining order she has taken out against him. By the seemingly random hand of fate Pat meets Lawrence’s Tiffany, a woman who is herself emotionally unpredictable following the traumatic death of her husband. After hearing Pat retell the story of his marital problems and his issues with mental illness, Tiffany randomly offers to deliver a letter to his wife, on the condition that he also helps her by participating in a dance competition at the end of the year. Soon, a bond forms between them. But will the relationship reveal the “silver lining” at the core of Pat’s philosophy?
A trio of great performances sit at the heart of Linings, and the film simultaneously depicts the birth of a star, and the redemption of an old acting veteran. There is something enormously satisfying that comes from Robert De Niro’s performance in Linings. Not only is it immediately apparent that this is the best role the ageing thespian has been given in over a decade, it is clear from his earliest scenes that De Niro has perhaps finally shed some of the lethargic vanity which marred a lot of his work over the 2000′s and 1990′s. De Niro returns here to playing the type of role which originally made him into one of the most prolific cinematic artists of the 20th Century. Pat Sr. is a complicated, deeply flawed individual and De Niro pulls off the performance gloriously, showing the man’s enormous propensity for anger, but also his painful regret over how he might have contributed to his son’s sorry mental state. Additionally, some of the film’s biggest laughs come from De Niro, whose rapid-fire fretting over his son’s volatile personality is a joy to watch.
In the leading role Bradley Cooper, at long last, closes the door on the initial stage of his career, proving conclusively the leading man promise, which had been suggested through his work in The Hangover and Limitless, was not simply talk. As Pat Jr. Cooper is great, creating what feels like his first fully realized and three-dimensional character. While some might say that the film’s depiction of his mental neurosis feels a tad dubious from time to time (particularly his constant stream of wildly inappropriate statements) its difficult to not be invested in Pat’s emotional turmoil over wanting to both reclaim and move on from the life he once had.
Still, for as impressive as the two leading men are (which is considerable) the film truly becomes alive through the performance of Jennifer Lawrence, who transcends the scripts confounding treatment of her character through work that is both deeply vulnerable and dominant, nuanced yet occasionally bombastic.
As good as her performance is the character that Lawrence plays is unfortunately indicative of the film’s weakest component, which is, essentially, the messy way in which its script fleshes out its themes, and the general air of predictability that pervades the storyline’s proceedings. Lawrence starts out in the story being an intriguing, unpredictable foil to Cooper’s rather abrasive Pat, a countering force to his mentally unbalanced demeanor. Yet, as the story progresses certain revelations are made which seem to change the fundamental nature of her character, and degrade her from being a lively, unique figure to something far more conventional.
The script’s treatment of its female lead is only one of its failings. The script does a superb job of slowly building up the Cooper character, of making repeated references to both his “silver lining” mantra, and to his psychiatrist’s urgings to develop a more concrete ” strategy” to handle the adversity of life and control his emotions in a healthier fashion. But for all of the great groundwork that it lays it is a shame that the script never clarifies the film’s themes. Is this a movie that is examining the dynamic between optimism and pragmatism? We never really get a legitimate answer, aside from vagaries regarding the various options that Pat might have for his own perception. Other elements, such as De Niro’s Pat Sr. being obsessive compulsive and adamantly convinced in his son being the determining factor in the outcome of Philadelphia Eagles games that he is betting on, or Pat Jr’s obsessive (and often socially unacceptable) need to “tell the truth,” are also not integrated into any sort of larger thematic tapestry, and register as little more than amusing distractions.
Additionally, the storyline of Linings is something that we have all seen before, with many of its main components (the two damaged souls who find each other, the emotionally stunted father who seeks to connect through the seemingly arbitrary act of watching football, etc.) feeling as old, and as thoroughly explored as anything in film. However, it is the emotion conveyed by the actors, and the powerful likability of the characters themselves which fuel the film past the limitations of its script. It’s the behavior of the people which keeps our attention despite the rather slim and rehashed story.
Also, Russell’s direction is spot on, and far superior to his performance as a writer. He creates a beautifully paced film, that provides real tension for scenes depicting Pat’s periodic emotional anguish. He is also a master of creating a tonal balancing act. While the storyline of Playbook is indeed serious, and shot simply in a hand-held fashion with few dramatic flourishes, Russell occasionally breaks from this style, using techniques such as slow-motion to add a great moment of humor when the characters are tailgating outside of the Eagles stadium, or tipping his hat to his past work in The Fighter with a breathtaking, and melodramatic pan out near the end of the film.
Final Verdict: The acting and directing of Silver Linings Playbook allows the film to easily dance past the inadequacies of its script, creating an emotionally charged portrait of tumultuous lives and the search to discover the brighter side of unfortunate circumstances.