Silver Linings Playbook: American Feel Good

Movie: Silver Linings Playbook

Release Date: 12/25/2012

Viewed: 1/15/2013

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romantic Comedy, American Feel Good

Length: 120 minutes

Rated: R

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver

Writer/ Director: David O. Russel

Tiffany: You know, for a while, I thought you were the best thing that ever happened to me. But now I’m starting to think you’re the worst.

Pat: Of course you do. Come on, let’s go dance.

The business of romance has become a bewildering state of affairs. The days of boy meets girl, boy marries girl, boy and girl have a family are long gone. In my family a conversation about romantic relationships inevitably draws the same question from my grandmother, “Well are they married?” No Grandma, my friends aren’t married, they just live together. To which she will often lament, “Why do people have to do everything ass backwards now?”

After divorce spread through my parent’s generation like chickenpox it might have left us kids a little jaded. The general life template prior generations appeared to have followed has gone out the window. I have friends with babies and no marriage, married friends with no house, friends with a house but neither baby nor marriage. There are no fundamental rules governing the success or failure of relationships. For those of us who are single it’s like fighting the crowds at a flea market; we're not quite sure what we’re looking for and when we eventually buy something and return home we realize the item is overpriced, poorly made or already broken. With no chance to return the item we muck it and move on. So where does that leave us single guys and gals? Surely the movie industry understands the plight of romance and life these days!

It is lunch time on a Tuesday and I am looking for my own silver lining to a week that is crawling by. My friend Jeff is never one to mince words so he just comes out and says it: Jennifer Lawrence is hot. Admittedly my curiosity has been peaked since Hunger Games. Who is this twenty-two year old goddess that has taken Hollywood by storm? The Kentucky girl next door: youthful, playful, candidly unabashed, bluntly crass, miraculously unfazed by her wild success with sex appeal to boot. Did I mention recently single? Thank god for bromance. What better way for two single men to spend a midweek evening than seeing a romcom together?

Jeff and I dropped by Taco Escobarr for a quick beer before the show. I love to ask questions so among the first words out of mouth were “Are Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence suppose to be romantically involved in this film?”  How the hell were they going to pull that off with well over a decade between them? The odds did not appear to be ever in their favor.

Silver Linings Playbook has something for everyone: mental institutions, running, football, dance...

So to Silver Linings Playbook. Our protagonist Pat (Bradley Cooper) has fallen victim to a series of traumatic events that has left him a shell of his former self. Here it may be most appropriate to quote Mitch from Old School, “…and then you catch the early flight home from San Diego and a couple of nude people jump out of your bathroom blindfolded like a goddamn magic show ready to double team your girlfriend...” Through happenstance Pat meets recently widowed Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence). The writing is certainly on the wall as we watch a disgusted Pat fling a Hemingway novel out the window for its tragic ending. Translation, when this movie ends we certainly won't be looking to chuck it back to concessions. This bitch is ending on a silver lining.

A group of almost equally troubled and quirky characters (played by Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Julia Styles, John Ortiz) successfully distracted me from a predictable ending. Typically these types of movies tend to annoyingly beat around the bush as the two lovers fall hopelessly for each other much to their initial obliviousness. This film is no exception however both the acting and writing are strong enough to keep us entertained and not just wondering when Pat and Tiffany are going to get with the program and hook up. With that being said I thought for a moment Jennifer Lawrence might break character when Pat states he thought it was romantic to lie about his true feelings for a week. My alternative ending had an annoyed Tiffany mumbling “stop being such a pussy” and stomping off but we got a bunch of mush instead.

Let’s call this movie for what it is: American feel good. It has all the ingredients to make the average American feel good: Cast containing both veteran and rising star actors and actresses, odd humor, two likable main characters eventually shacking up and overcoming their woes (oh yeah and it has football). While this movie certainly isn’t earth shattering it excels at what it set out to do: keep you entertained, keep you laughing and make you feel good. At the very least I wasn’t sitting alone in my apartment. I was sitting in a movie theater with Jeff staring at Jennifer Lawrence in tight dance clothes. There is my silver lining.