Film Review: Silver Linings Playbook

The latest craze seems to be the film Silver Linings Playbook, which began as a small independent film with limited release, and grew to amass a box office return more than 10 times its budget (at the time of writing).  I saw this movie in theater just after it made it to my town in January and was blown away by the acting by the always-complex Jennifer Lawrence and the usually-shallow Bradley Cooper.  Perhaps as intriguing, the film is based on the 2008 debut-novel by Matthew Quick.

The biggest surprise had to be Bradley Cooper's performance.  In my opinion, this is the first role he's played that truly had any amount of depth.  His character had a number of mental illnesses that prohibited him (and his family) from leading a normal life.  His goal is to get his act together and get his wife to take him back.  He plans to do this by finding the "silver linings" in everything, essentially finding small positive ways to look at every situation.  This isn't easy, as he has anger issues on top of his other disorders.  Hope seems lost, until he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence).

Tiffany is another example of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG), which I've discussed in previous posts.  The story is less about her personality and mental disorders, and more about how her presence helps Patrick (Bradley Cooper) get his life back.  It's rare with the MPDG motif that the girl actually is manic from a mental illness.  In this case, the motif just plain works.  Tiffany and Patrick are right for each other on so many levels, the audience is rooting for them from the start.

Bookophile Rating: Ludicrous! (For probably the best movie of 2012 and some of Jennifer Lawrence's best acting - she won an Oscar for it).