Film Review: Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook is at once a heartwarming romantic comedy and a twisted psychodrama. If you’re in the market for an unconventional yet predictable love story, this is the film for you.

Pat Solatano (Bradley Cooper) lost his wife, his home and his sanity after nearly beating his wife’s lover to death. Eight months later, he’s shed a few pounds, gained a new philosophy and moved in with his anxious mother (Jacki Weaver) and Philadelphia Eagles-crazed father (Robert DeNiro). Running through his neighborhood and attending regular therapy sessions, Pat maintains an intense physical and psychological regime in an effort to win back his estranged wife. In the meantime, he meets self-proclaimed used-to-be-whore Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), his match made in head-case heaven.

The cast, dealing with everything from manic depression to obsessive compulsion to anxiety and nymphomania, is an absolute knockout. I had my reservations with The Hunger Games battlefield sweetheart Jennifer Lawrence and The Hangover stud Bradley Cooper given the complexity of the roles they were playing, but each successfully channeled their inner nutjob. The film’s shortcomings lie in its ultimate predictability and the excessive conflicts between and within its characters. But hey, you don’t see a rom-com about a bunch of psychos for anything else, do you?

Silver Linings Playbook was adapted from Matthew Quick’s 2008 novel by the same name. If you’ve read it you may be disappointed by the movie, but only slightly. The film takes place in the suburbs of Philadelphia rather than South Jersey, and Pat’s relationship with his father is reversed (in the novel, Pat is the one fighting to keep his father engaged, but the roles flip in the film).

Nonetheless, Quick has said that he is a “big fan of the film,” noting that the story is only manipulated for the sake of its success on the big screen.

Silver Linings Playbook was as entertaining as I expected it to be. The film is a head-scratcher at times, which for me is an improvement over standard rom-com fare. That might alienate those interested only in Bradley Cooper’s (cough, cough) charisma, but if for nothing else, it’s worth going to see him yell about the alternate ending to Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.