The Cinema Lounge: Silver Linings Playbook

Take an award winning director, an independent film actress turned mega star franchise actress, a comedic actor trying to branch out into dramas, a comedic-romantic story line containing thoughts on mental illness, and Chris Tucker dancing and you'd get Silver Linings Playbook. Directed by David O. Russell hot off the critical and commercial success of the Oscar nominated film The Fighter. Silver Linings Playbook itself is nominated for 8 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Director.

The film stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, and Chris Tucker. The plot centers around Patrick (Cooper), a former substitute teacher in Philadelphia who, after spending time in a mental institution, moves back in with his parents and attempts to reconcile with his ex-wife. His life is turned upside down when he meets a girl by the name of Tiffany (Lawrence), who also has a few issues as well.

The cast is pretty stellar with everyone having a chance to shine. Bradley Cooper finally gets a more dramatic role that can show just how good he is. Jennifer Lawrence is wonderful as Tiffany and out of the list of nominated actresses this year, definitely deserves to get recognized as best actress at the Oscars. It's refreshing to see De Niro in a role that's actually worthy of him for once instead of something like New Year's Eve, and he really does a fantastic job here. It's a shame De Niro is up against the likes of Christoph Waltz this year for Best Supporting because this is the best I've seen him in years but compared to Waltz's performance I doubt he'll get it, though if he did it would be wholeheartedly deserved. I must admit it was also nice to see Chris Tucker pop up in something again after a few years of living under a rock somewhere. He plays a friend of Patrick's from the mental institution who consistently finds ways of breaking out to come hang out with his pal.

The plot of the film isn't necessarily anything special but the dialogue and reactions of characters with each other is really where it takes form. Cooper and Lawrence have excellent chemistry together and have many humorous and even sometimes outright hilarious moments, although their relationship felt eclipsed by the relationship between Cooper and De Niro. The father son relationship really went through a lot with De Niro having to deal with Cooper's health problems and even his own OCD and superstitions that mirror his son's mental problems. By the end of the film it was that relationship that felt completely fleshed out and that it truly went through a sort of metamorphosis.

The film is great and barely falters until the very end. There were a few ways it could have ended to truly make it great, but unfortunately the film plays it safe and it really suffers from that. Though I do very much like how it ends with Copper's father and wife. If Russell could have just taken a chance and maybe even leave the end a bit ambiguous  it would have really improved it and maybe even made this the best film of the year as a whole. But as it stands it's an enjoyable, way-above-average, rom-com with a talented cast and some truly funny moments.

FINAL GRADE: B+