One
of the many joys of Silver Linings Playbook is seeing Robert De Niro playing a
real character and not a caricature, which is not to say he doesn’t have his
over the top moments. Just about everyone in the cast of David O. Russell’s
strange and disturbing and deeply romantic new film has to act with a capital
A. Bradley Cooper gives maybe his most impressive performance yet playing “Pat”.
He’s back home with mom and dad in Philadelphia after spending eight months in
the state institution. Pat lost it after discovering his wife in the shower
with another man and now he’s obsessed with winning her back. Pat is so aggressively
cheerful that you’re just waiting for this guy to explode and he does on a
number of occasions. During the first half of this film I kept thinking they
should put this guy away and end the movie but then something miraculous
happens and that something is named Jennifer Lawrence. She plays Tiffany and
she is at least as disturbed as Pat and they bring out the best and occasionally
the worst in each other. Meanwhile De Niro plays Pat Senior and he is consumed
with his gambling and his passion for the hometown Eagles. It never occurs to
Pat Senior that his OCD rituals might be a huge contributing factor to his son’s
problems. As Pat and Tiffany rehearse for a dance competition that means everything
to Tiffany, Pat Senior risks everything on and ill-advised wager. Silver Linings
Playbook really gets it right in the depiction of Philadelphia’s most fanatical
fans but the gambling stuff doesn’t really ring accurate. But that’s a minor quiver
of the grand scheme of this unique and weirdly exhilarating story. Cooper, and De Niro, and Jacki Weaver, and Chris
Tucker all deliver excellent performances, and Jennifer Lawrence is transcendent
with The Hunger Games and Winter’s Bone and her work here she has announced herself
as arguably the most promising actress of her generation. I give Silver Linings Playbook an A +. This is Mathysse with your weekly movie report on WKNJ.
