A review of Silver Linings Playbook

 With words like ‘mental institution’, ‘rehab’ and ‘therapy’ being used in it’s movie description and the added tag of it being an Oscar nominated film ( Oscar films are generally considered to be extremely boring), most audiences would mark Silver Linings  way down on their watch list. On the contrary, Silver Linings does not delve too much into the sickness, instead it shows us the world from the eyes of the patient (in this case Bradley Cooper who I can’t wait to talk about).

The story picks up after Pat (Bradley Cooper) and his friend Danny (Chris Tucker. Yes you heard it right, the “Rush Hour” guy) finish their stint at a mental institution and are deemed fit to re-join the so called normal-folk. This movie follows Pat’s initial struggle to cope with his changing surroundings and explores his interactions with his parents, brother, neighbours and most of all, his never-ending quest to make peace with his ex-wife (that’s about it, like seriously). Things get interesting with the introduction of Jennifer Lawrence’s character, Tiffany, who is this carefree girl with some serious issues but she compliments Pat’s character beautifully throughout the movie.

Acting was almost impeccable in Silver Linings (it was the only saving grace for the film). This movie for me was Bradley Cooper telling the world that he’s not just “The Hangover” guy anymore but a ‘proper’ actor who should be taken seriously. His performance was near flawless (so much so that it took a guy like Daniel Day Lewis to deny him the Oscar for Best Actor). One scene in particular where he completely ‘loses it’ while searching for his wedding video was beautifully done and his transition from being calm to absolutely maniacal was almost seamless. I couldn’t picture anyone else pulling off Jennifer Lawrence’s role so I guess she did a good job (although I thought she was massively overshadowed by Bradley Cooper’s stellar performance). The rest of the cast was perfect; I mean you can hardly go wrong with people like Robert De Niro and Jackie Weaver filling in. Also a shout-out to Anupam Kher (him being Indian and everything) who I thought was daftly entertaining in his role as a shrink.

And finally we come to the script and this is where everything starts falling apart. I’m here to review the movie and not the acting and honestly there isn’t much of a movie here, in fact it left me wondering why a guy like David O Russell (director) would go from “The Fighter” to this. The first hour was good; the last half hour was painful. Silver Linings basically is a clichéd Bollywood movie (Like a “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi”) spin-off with brilliant acting. If all I remember from the movie is Anupam Kher’s “go home you cock-suckers” in a heavy Indian accent, it’s quite evident that the movie didn’t really do much. 
Bradley Cooper, I’m obsessed. 
Silver Linings Playbook, I don’t quite remember.