Director – David O. Russell – 2012 – US – Cert. 15 – 117m
*****
Two people on the one hand meant for one another and on the other probably shouldn’t go anywhere near each other – disaster romance was released in the UK on Wednesday, November 21st 2012
Back in the outside world after eight months in a mental hospital, Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper) is beset by anger management problems. He only has to hear a few bars of Stevie Wonder’s My Cherie Amour, and he’s trashing the waiting room of psychiatrist Dr.Patel (Anupam Kher from Bend It Like Beckham, Gurinda Chadha, 2002) whilst plunged into memories of walking in on his then wife Nikki (Brea Bee) in the shower with another man.
So now he’s living at home with his Philadelphia Eagles fan, inveterate gambler and small businessman father Pat Solitano Sr. (Robert De Niro) and his supportive mother Dolores (Jacki Weaver from Memoir of a Snail, Adam Elliot, 2024; Animal Kingdom, David Michod, 2010; Picnic at Hanging Rock, Peter Weir, 1975).
Pat wants to win his wife back, but since she has a restraining order on him, that’s unlikely to happen. Determined to remain faithful to his estranged wife, he’s introduced to and befriends widow Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), an obsessive amateur dancer whose sights are set on competing in an upcoming dance competition… for which she needs a partner.
As in The Fighter (2010), director Russell (who adapted the screenplay from a bestselling book) is drawn to drama based around family dynamics. In his best role since Mad Dog And Glory (John McNaughton,1993), watching De Niro’s bit part as the father as he interacts with Cooper, you get a sense of where part of the son’s personality problems come from even as their dependable wife / mother Weaver holds things together in the background.
Characters lacking in basic social skills are handled sympathetically. Not only is this trait obvious in Pat, and to a lesser extent in Pat Sr., but from the moment Pat and Tiffany meet they are saying completely the wrong things to each other. It’s the double-edged sword of “here are two people meant for each other” alongside “how can these two possibly get along” which makes for compelling viewing.
It helps no end that Lawrence, whose extraordinary performance in Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, 2010) earned her a well-deserved Oscar nomination, delivers an even more memorable (but completely different) performance here as the unhinged yet essentially good Tiffany.
Rather like the way that every time Pat goes out jogging Tiffany seems inevitably to appear out of nowhere at a turn in the road to jog alongside him, so too as the narrative twists and turns it throws in further elements that add something worthwhile to the mix.
So, for instance, our hero goes to an Eagles game, having been warned against getting into any fights, and runs into his Indian psychiatrist who is, like Pat, along for the game with a bunch of friends. But no sooner have these two ethnic groups bonded than a bunch of white racist fans pick a fight, which quickly escalates. It’s an episode in a film not about racism which tackles the subject head on.
Elsewhere, this delivers astute observations on gambling as addiction and promiscuity as attention-seeking. While thoroughly entertaining and frequently funny, it’s a commendably messy package of a movie, rough around its many edges, that has much to offer the viewer on many levels.
Silver Linings Playbook was released in the UK on Wednesday, November 21st 2012.
This review was originally published in Third Way.
Trailer: