Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell, 2012) Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver
After a stint in a mental institution, former teacher Pat Solitano moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. Things get more challenging when Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own.
I enjoyed this most out of all the 2013 Best Film Oscar nominees, and have collected these excerpts from reviews which I thought were insightful.
Roger Ebert:
We’re fully aware of the plot conventions at work here, the wheels and gears churning within the machinery, but with these actors, this velocity and the oblique economy of the dialogue, we realize we don’t often see it done this well. Silver Linings Playbook is so good, it could almost be a terrific old classic. Roger Ebert.
Karina Longworth:
Manic as it might be stylistically, Silver Linings Playbook maintains too even of an emotional keel. It’s a film about the alienated that makes sure to alienate no one, a movie depicting wild mood extremes that never rises or falls above a dull hum of diversion. Russell has made a great movie about American malaise; this isn’t it. Karina Longworth.
Justin Chang:
... if Silver Linings Playbook is a softer, gentler thing than the director’s previous works, following a traditional finding-yourself-and-falling-in-love template in the guise of something moderately darker and more subversive, it nonetheless boasts a level of charm, heart and formal sophistication increasingly rare among adult-driven studio comedies. Justin Chang.
reviews | Garry Gillard | New: 1 March, 2017 | Now: 23 August, 2022