A very good movie

We often talk about how many actors managed to make some impressive come-backs in their career such as John Travolta, Robert Downey Jr. or Mickey Rourke but, very often, we tend to forget that for some directors, the path was also pretty hazardous and David O. Russell is one perfect example. Indeed, after helming 3 movies, he was hailed as the next best thing. Unfortunately, even though Russell was definitely a talented director, he also had some issues and he got the reputation of being quite impossible to work with (Among other things George Clooney punched him while shooting ‘Three Kings’ and he had a major falling out with Mark Wahlberg after working with him on 3 movies over a decade). Anyway, as a result, Russell managed to make only one movie between 1999 and 2010, the barely seen ‘I Heart Huckabees’. Fortunately for him, he made a major comeback in 2010 with this movie which was nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award and so was his last movie, ‘Silver Linings Playbook’. So, I was definitely eager to watch this flick. Apparenty, it was a labour of love, a pet project for Mark Wahlberg who had been training for this movie since 2005. Wahlberg seems to be a very talented actor but also a very smart businessman, usually starring in decent action movies ('Four Brothers' for example) or even in one of the best comedies of the year ('Ted'). Still, when you watch 'Boogie Nights' or 'The Departed', you sense a greater potential but it seems barely used in my opinion. The funny thing is that even though Wahlberg was pretty good as the lead character, he is completely overstaged by Melissa Leo and, above all, Christian Bale (both won eventually an Academy Award for their performances). Furthermore, the story was just really fascinating, mixing a generic but entertaining boxing epic with some drug issues and a familly drama. This combination was really good and made up a very intriguing movie. My only critic is that the story was very good, those two 2nd characters were really good as well but the main character was rather poorly developped. Indeed, during all this social mayhem and chaos, we never really get the chance to actually get to know him. Still, it is a very strong drama, probably the best movie directed by Russell so far and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

8/10