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When it first started, I was more than a little worried that Silver Linings Playbook would be a movie which made mental illness seems quirky and funny, and not the debilitating and often harrowing experience it actually can be. But the atomic bomb which annihilated all doubts I had about the movie came in the form of Jennifer Lawrence.
Well, maybe not any and all doubts, I still take issue with the movie industries insistence on creating “fixable” and attractive hysterics. Real life mental illness is a lifelong struggle that one does not magically overcome by falling in love with another mentally ill person. But no matter, there’s enough in Silver Linings Playbook to feel that a happy ending for these character may be deserved, after all, they do suffer quite a bit throughout.
Pat (Bradley Cooper) is fresh out of a stay in a mental institution, he moves back in with his parents (Jacki Weaver and Robert De Niro), and falls in love with troubled Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence). Much of the film plays out in conventional rom-com fashion, with the mental illness sprinkled on top as a quirk, but the uglier scenes are the ones that resonate. Their love story is pleasing and all, but I found myself more interested in the film when Pat was saying things about how he hated his illness and wanted to control. These tiny glimpses into the actual troubled minds at work are worth sticking through the plot contrivances.
I said that the movie didn’t really ignite for me until Jennifer Lawrence came into it, and that is very much true. Her portrayal of Tiffany is all fractured nerves, neediness and compulsions to both connect with someone and destroy that relationship. She allows for Bradley Cooper’s character to finally emerge from kooky-movie-headcase into (mostly) fully rendered human being. Scenes of these two comparing mood stabilizing drugs or arguing over which is crazier ring with an authenticity missing from much of the rest of the film. And their performances are dynamite, Lawrence isn’t surprising given the depths she was able to plunder in Winter’s Bone, but Cooper is practically a revelation here. Never once resting on his charm and good looks, instead showing us that he’s unafraid to appear ugly, desperate or broken, Cooper delivers a performance which hopefully shows that he’s ready to move away from Hangover sequels and into more serious dramatic parts.
Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver turn in quiet and effecting work as Pat’s parents. Weaver’s role is the least showy, and yet she’s always stellar, turning on a dime between concern and understanding. She wants her son to get help, and is supportive and calm, even when her emotions are running high, but also knows that her husband isn’t exactly the picture of mental health. De Niro’s sensitivity is a welcome reminder of the greatness he could so easily achieve in the earlier part of his career. His obsessive compulsive behavior is authentic to anyone who has witnessed a sports fanatic at work trying to summon the gods of fate and chance to be on their team’s side.
The problems come in the plot machinery loudly running in the background. Somehow a bet placed on both a football and a dance contest coming up in their favor is supposed to help alleviate and fix the mental issues of the father and son. And the less said about Chris Tucker’s utterly useless character, who gets dropped in from time to time to remind us that mental illness can be kooky and fun, the better for it we’ll all be. The romantic angle plays out exactly as it would if this were a film starring Jennifer Aniston, Meg Ryan, Sandra Bullock or Reese Witherspoon. This balmy, soothing touch actually hurts the film overall.
While the performers are giving it their all, and delivering some laudable work, the script lets them down. But every so often it’ll whip up a real scene which details the struggle and ugliness of a life lived with instability and emotional spillover. Silver Linings Playbook could have ditched the quirk and been a story we could have invested in more. I never once hated the film, though I did feel a little uncomfortable during the first few minutes, but I found myself more entertained by the ephemerality in the script and the greatness of the performances. There’s a good foundation here, but not enough work went in to building something more true and original.
