Silver Linings Playbook
(2012)
I’ve liked all of David O Russell’s
previous films, but about 30 minutes in I was unsure whether I’d go the
distance if this one was going to be nothing but two hours of Bradley Cooper going
through a bi-polar meltdown.
Fortunately, the introduction of the also
troubled (and utterly gorgeous) Jennifer Lawrence turns things around, and if
the film ultimately ekes out a path towards a very safe, traditional place (all
you need is love to remedy your condition!) that’s far preferable to what might
have ended up more Requiem for a Dream in pursuing a line of mental torment and
aberration. And Russell seems quite unapologetic in turning towards the Sun; so
much so that he evens sets the closing act at Christmas.
The director’s more oddball comic
predilections are present and correct (see also Flirting with Disaster and I
Heart Huckabees) but reined in by a “real world” setting he discovered with The
Fighter. He populates it with obsessives (De Niro as Cooper’s OCD father) and
likable loonies (Chris Tucker as a hair-obsessed fellow mental patient of
Cooper) and mostly walks the line between comedy and drama with expert
judgement. A few scenes feel artificial (Lawrence’s reeling off of football
stats that turns the tables on De Niro, a fight at a football game) but he
nails the spinny psychotic episodes and tunnel vision headspaces of his
protagonists. I should probably feel he copped out with an easy resolution,
except that it becomes absolutely the conclusion you want as the viewer and the
hard work of the early stages of the film goes a considerable way to making it
emotionally (if not realistically) earned.
There’s not a whole lot to say about the
leads that isn’t superlatives. Cooper conveys his character’s obsessive desire
to reclaim a lost love so convincingly that he’s deeply uncomfortable to watch.
But it’s Lawrence who is most affecting in a less obviously showy and initially
more reactive part. That she’s 15 years younger than Cooper only becomes relevant
when he notes there’s an age gap. De Niro’s received a few plaudits for this,
but while he’s solid honestly he didn’t really wow me. Jackie Weaver is outstanding
as the long-suffering wife and mother.
There’s maybe a sense that Russell’s gone
consciously more mainstream and less edgy with his last two films, but I
suspect the same ethos is at work that gave us Three Kings; he’s always sought
to make pictures with popular appeal, just not ones that come out
machine-processed.
Oh, and every time Cooper’s mantra of “Excelsior” I flashbacked to George
Costanza’s “Serenity now!”
*****