"Silver Linings Playbook" is an indie film that tells the story of Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper), a former high school teacher recently released from a mental institution after an 8-month stint following an "incident" with his ex-wife...
The story develops as he tries to readjust to life and learns how to handle his bipolar disorder, which had gone undiagnosed prior to his admission... As he comes out of the institution, Pat's new motto is to find the "silver lining" in everything that happens to him...
While he's doing that, he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), who's a strange girl with her own set of issues....Pat grows close to Tiffany as he tries to make amends to fix his marriage and his life...
The story takes a turn and he grows close to Tiffany and then they fall in love... very predictable... right?
This movie had its good moments and the acting was phenomenal; however I think it lacked a little detail in regards to Pat's past as well as the incident that initially landed him in the mental institution (they do as some point insert a flashback of the moment Pat found his wife cheating on him with a fellow teacher, however not enough info is given).. I also think the love story was cut short and the chemistry between Pat and Tiffany wasn't all that great...even though they do kiss and look at each other with a romantic intent...
Robert De Niro does a great supporting role playing Pat's OCD father and he adds a little something to the story, but I think the movie sequence was a bit disjointed and all over the place at times...
The story was engaging and the lesson of the movie was very clear: "everything has a SILVER LINING", but I still think the movie lacked something; the climax of the story didn't get quite as high as I expected, so this one gets 3 out of 5 stars in my book... entertaining but not a "must see"...
1 comment:
What you say about the plot and the chemistry between Tiffany and the main actor it's very true. For me,Silver Linings was more about accepting people with mental disabilities and/or 'different', how they can often express their feelings in a more 'authentic' manner. Take the two brothers, one was very conventionally successful in getting a job, a new house, etc but didn't have 'time' to visit his brother at the clinic. The parents on the contrary specially Robert De Niro convey their unconditional love in a touching manner. I guess it's difficult to get it all right in a movie production but this one is a change from many movies from recent years which concentrate more on 'special effects' than on developing a plot. Thanks a lot for sharing your critique it gave me more insight :)
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