"Silver Linings" Has Some Shine

"Silver Linings Playbook" comes with an unfortunate amount of baggage. It's currently the subject of an overzealous Harvey Weinstein marketing campaign, and has been nominated for more Oscars than it probably should have been. I worry people are going to go into it expecting something more profound than the movie has to offer. At its core, "Silver Linings Playbook" is a perfectly solid, enjoyable romantic comedy, where the main characters happen to have some severe emotional and psychological issues to work out. There are some good performances to enjoy, and the script has fun knocking down the usual flimsy rom-com clichés.

Bradley Cooper stars as Pat Solitano, who we meet as he is being discharged from a mental health facility. He has bipolar disorder, and had to be institutionalized for eight months after a violent incident. Pat goes to live with his parents, Pat Sr. and Dolores (Robert DeNiro, Jacki Weaver), since his wife Nikki has left him, sold their house, and gotten a restraining order against him. Pat struggles in recovery, fixated on reuniting with Nikki and repairing his marriage. However, he also becomes involved with Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a recently widowed young dance enthusiast, who is working through her own assortment of emotional problems. Thanks to her influence and support, Pat is able to confront some of his demons.

Now I understand why people are rallying around the movie, because it does have some nice surprises and admirable impulses. I've complained before that our best directors should be stretching more and tackling material outside their comfort zones, and David O'Russell making any kind of romantic comedy certainly fits the bill. This is the sort of unconventional approach to conventional material that should be encouraged and rewarded. Also, Jennifer Lawrence does deliver a hell of a performance as the delightfully screwed-up Tiffany, and Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro commit to their roles in a way that we don't see too often from either of them. O'Russell may have a reputation for being difficult, but he sure provokes some good work out of his actors.

Romantic comedies have been in such a sorry state these past few years, it's become a rare pleasure to find one that is actually about believable relationships, and has well-rounded characters you can feel some sympathy for. That's why it's so tempting to want to overlook the film's flaws. First and foremost, the treatment of mental illness isn't the best, and I think it's fair to say that O'Russell fudged more than a few things for dramatic effect. Pat's bad episodes are marked by a lot of screaming and yelling and dysfunctional family fun that get the intensity of his emotional state across, but avoid any darker, cavernous depths. The raucous fight scenes often feel too close to O'Russell's previous film, "The Fighter," to be entirely a coincidence. However, you never feel for a moment that he's not taking these characters and their problems absolutely seriously.

Then there are the various plot complications that didn't really work for me, like the set-up for the third act. As good as "Silver Linings Playbook" is about avoiding some of the typical rom-com pitfalls, it happily embraces plenty of other contrivances. And I mean really, really obvious use of formula that I was surprised O'Russell would resort to. Then there are the minor characters. You may have noticed Chris Tucker in the trailers as Danny, a friend of Pat's from the institution. He's moderately engaging in the few scenes he has, but O'Russell can't seem to work out what to do with him. Same thing goes with Ronnie Maxwell (John Ortiz) and his wife Veronica (Julia Stiles), who are introduced to help bring Pat and Tiffany together, and then have a sort-of peripheral, half-assed subplot that feels like a last minute afterthought.

None of these issues bothered me enough to affect my basic enjoyment of the film, and I do happily recommend it if you're in the mood for something romantic and heartfelt with some edge to it. However, sorting out my reactions after the movie, I concluded that there was nothing I really found noteworthy or special about it. Directors like Thomas McCarthy and Jason Reitman and Alexander Payne have all made far better films that cover similar territory. I can't really work up any sort of justification for "Silver Linings Playbook" being on the receiving end of a whopping eight Academy Award nominations. Best Film Editing? No. Best Supporting Actress? I like Jacki Weaver, but her role as the Solitano matriarch is slight at best. Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director for David O'Russell? I think he's more deserving here than he was for "The Fighter," but it's still a real stretch.

I wish I'd seen "Silver Linings Playbook" earlier in the season, because as I careful as I was trying to be, I think the hype did effect the way I watched the film to some degree. Still, I truly did enjoy it, even if I can't root for it. And I'd love to see David O'Russell take another shot at a romantic comedy.
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