Silver Linings Playbook is among the lighter films in this year's race. Centered around a character just released from a mental hospital, it's part family bonding, part romance, part comedy, part drama, part critique of the mental health system, part examination of nature versus nurture... it's a quirky little melange of a whole lot of things. If I had to reach for some kind of film to compare it to, I'd probably go with Juno (though I wouldn't quite put the movie up in that same rarefied air).
What impresses me most about Silver Linings Playbook is the rather significant number of things about it that probably shouldn't work, yet somehow do. The main character is painfully self-deluded; it should be impossible to root for him, and yet you do. There's a readily apparent age difference between stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence (they don't pass the zeitgeist's "half your age plus seven years" test); they shouldn't really gel as an on-screen couple, and yet they do. Robert De Niro has made a lot of movies in the last decade playing a deliberate caricature of the type of role he plays here; it shouldn't be possible to take him seriously in such a role anymore, and yet you do. And the list goes on.
The film has been nominated for several Oscars, and the acting ones in particular are well deserved. Depending on which critic you read on which day, Jennifer Lawrence is the likely winner for Best Actress. Her performance here is worldly and deep, making you forget completely about the big franchise movies she's also starring in as a teenaged character. She'd be a worthy winner.
Bradley Cooper gives his best performance to date, proving he's not just the charismatic pretty face of action films and broad comedies. His portrayal of bipolar disorder feels honest without being overly showy. He has the misfortune of being nominated for Best Actor in the year where Daniel Day-Lewis is a shoo-in for Lincoln, but this work will surely lead to other films for him where he may well get another chance at the award.
Robert De Niro is nominated for Best Supporting Actor. As I noted earlier, his biggest triumph here is in overcoming the caricature he's created for himself. But more than that, he gives a surprisingly well-tuned "like father, like son" performance that adds to the dimension of the script. Jacki Weaver is also nominated, for Best Supporting Actress. I wouldn't have thought her performance in the movie to be a standout, though she certainly holds her own in a movie with three other Oscar-worthy performances. Perhaps that in itself is an accomplishment worth acknowledging. And while neither Chris Tucker or Julia Stiles earned any award recognition for their work here, they're both very fun, memorable pieces of the puzzle.
Director David O. Russell adapted this screenplay, earning himself nominations for both jobs (though with the competition he's up against, he's likely to lose both). I'm intrigued that this film came from the same man who made The Fighter. The two films could scarcely be more different in tone, but both struck their respective tones very well.
Silver Linings Playbook is another movie that, in a weaker year, might well have been a worthy Best Picture winner. It's a movie I'd grade an A-, and would certainly recommend. It's that good... and yet it still only makes #5 on my list from last year. Once again, we have an embarrassment of riches.
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