Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

USA; 122min

Comedy, Drama, Romance

Director: David O. Russell

Writers: David O. Russell,  Matthew Quick (Silver Linings Playbook)

Stars: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro

Pat's (Bradley Cooper) life was going more than well. He had a job that he liked, a big house and the woman he loves. In one day, everything changed. After catching his wife Nikki with her lover and beating him up he eventually ended in mental health institution for bipolar disorder. Nikki has since left him and has received a restraining order against him. After a minimum of eight months in the institution he goes home under few conditions, he has to live with his parents, Pat Sr. and Dolores (Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver), he has to take medications and to go to therapy. 

But Pat is far away from being in depression. He decided to completely restore his life and he's full of confidence. The main goal is to bring Nikki back with some minor ones like getting the old job back, losing weight and getting independence from parents. Shortly after his return he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a young, also mentally unstable, widow who becomes a kind of a sex addict after her's husband death: Two of them start developing a deeper relationship. While they entered this relationship with completely different goals and desires it helps both of them with their psychological recovery. 
Silver Linings Playbook is certainly one of the last year's most pleasant surprises. Although such a good result is not so strange since, after all, David O. Russell (The Fighter, Three Kings) has a number of successful projects behind him, Jennifer Lawrence is becoming very mature actress, Bradley Cooper has solid acting potential, De Niro is De Niro, although his appearance stopped being a sign of quality a long time ago, and Quick's novel wasn't praised in vain.

The story is interesting and very dynamic, and is incomparable with standard, pathetic modern Hollywood romantic comedies. Plot and approach to the subject has breathed necessary dose of originality in the genre. Character development, both main and minor, is also atypically deep for romantic genre. Pat and Tiffany are very impressive, which is the product of well written characters and dialogues and, of course, excellent performance. Bradley Cooper became Pat and he proved that his potential is far above The Hangover and mediocre thrillers. Their new project are expected with great interest, specially a new collaboration of Bradley and Jennifer Lawrence, who rightly become one of the top female names in Hollywood, in Serena  which is coming out this autumn. There is also a new collaboration of Bradley and Jennifer with Russell on the yet-untitled historical thriller with Christian Bale and Amy Adams. 
Supporting characters are also wonderfully developed and performed with great dialogues. Robert De Niro as Pat Sr. must be highlighted here. He finally got a decent role, and he showed why he's one of greatest names of film industry.  

Although Pat Sr. is old, sensitive, often confused, superstitious, dependent on his wife and emotional fan of the Philadelphia Eagles with obsessive compulsive disorder, which is the opposite of all the characters that we are used to identify with De Niro, he was nominated for Oscar after 21 years for a reason. Chris Tucker should be also mentioned in his role of Danny, Pat's colleagues from the hospital, who agreed to appear in a movie, except for Rush Hour, after 15 years.
A little bit of praise also goes to good directing, very good atmosphere and excellent music, and then a little bit of criticism. The first negative critic goes to film's predictability. It's true that Silver Linings Playbook isn't mystery thriller, but does every single thing that we as viewers should think about has to be clear in advance? The budget of the film is relatively small for modern standards (21mil dollars), but there was surely enough for few extras or at least someone from the crew could walk in the background of the scenes in the open, because it turns out that Pat and Tiffany were alone in Pennsylvania. 
Quality romantic comedies are endangered species in the film world. Let's hope that Silver Linings Playbook is only one of the pioneers of recovery of this genre and that we will soon be seeing more of such genre's successes.

Patu (Bradley Cooper) je išlo solidno u životu. Imao je posao koji ga je veselio, kuću i ženu koju voli. U jednom danu sve se promijenilo. Nakon što je ulovio ženu sa ljubavnikom prebio ga je i u konačnici završio u psihijatrijskoj bolnici zbog otkrivenog bipolarnog poremečaja sa zabranom prilaza ženi. Nakon minimalnih osam mjeseci boraka u bolnici izlazi van pod uvjetom da živi sa roditeljima Patom Sr. i Dolores (Robert De Niro i Jacki Weaver), pije lijekove i odlazi na terapije.

No, daleko je od depresije. Samouvjereno i s vizijom kreće u popravak svog života, a kao glavni cilj je postavio povratak ženi uz povratak posla i osamostaljenje od roditelja. Ubrzo nakon povratka, preko prijatelja, upoznaje Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), mladu, također psihički nestabilnu, udovicu koja nakon smrti muža postaje svojevrsni ovisnik o seksu, te s njom ostvaruje sve dublji odnos. Iako u taj odnos ulaze sa drugačijim ciljevima i željama on oboma pomaže u psihološkom oporavku.
Silver Linings Playbook je zasigurno jedno od ugodnijih iznenađenja prošle godine. Iako tako dobar rezultat ni nije tako čudan jer ipak David O. Russell (The Fighter, Three Kings) ima nekolicinu uspješnih projekata iza sebe, Jennifer Lawrence očigledno sve više sazrijeva kao glumica, Bradley Cooper ima solidan glumački potencijal, De Niro je De Niro, iako je njegova pojava davno prestala bit znak kvalitete ovdje je zasjao nakon dugo vremena, a Quickov roman nije uzalud bio hvaljen.

Priča je dinamična i zanimljiva te je neusporediva sa standardnim klišejastim i patetičnim suvremenim holivudskim romantičnim komedijama. Zaplet i sam pristup tematici je udahnuo prijekopotrebnu dozu originalnosti u žanr za koji je također ovakva dubina razrade likova, kako glavnih tako i sporednih, netipična. Pat i Tiffany su jako upečatljivi, a tome pridonose i odlično napisani likovi i dijalozi te izvrsna izvedba. Bradley Cooper se potpuno unio u Pata i pokazao kako je njegov potencijal daleko iznad The Hangovera i osrednjih trilera. Sa zanimanjem očekujemo sljedeće njegove projekte, ponajviše novu suradnju s Jennifer Lawrence, koja s razlogom postaje jednim od glavnih ženskih holivudskih imena, u Sereni koja izlazi na jesen ove godine te njihovu novu suradnju s Russellom na još neimenovanom povijesnom trileru uz Christiana Balea i Amy Adams.
Sporedni likovi su također izvrsno razrađeni i odrađeni uz fenomenalne dijaloge. Tu se Robert De Niro kao Pat Sr. posebno ističe. Napokon je dobio poštenu ulogu i pošteno ju je odradio. Iako je Pat Sr., star, osjetljiv, često zbunjen, praznovjeran, ovisan o ženi i emocionalan fan Philadelphia Eaglesa sa opsesivno kompulzivni poremečajem, što je sve suprotno od likova koje smo navikli poistovječivati sa De Nirom on s tim poistovječivanjem nije imao problema.tako da je nominacija za Oscara nakon 21 godine potpuno opravdana. 

Vrijedi spomenuti i Chrisa Tuckera u ulozi Dannya, Patovog kolege iz bolnice, koji se odlučio pojaviti u nekom filmu izuzev Rush Houra nakon punih 15 godina.
Još malo hvale ide na račun dobre režije, vrlo dobre atmosfere i odlične glazbe, a onda i nešto malo kritike. Prva negativnost je predvidljivost. Jest da Silver Linings Playbook nije mystery thriller, ali zar baš svaka stvar oko koje se mi kao gledatelji trebamo zapitati mora biti praktički unaprijed jasna? Budžet filma je u suvremenim okvirima relativno mali (21mil dolara), ali stvarno se moglo naći za pokojeg statista ili se bar netko od ekipe mogao prošetati u pozadini scena na otvorenom jer ovako ispada da su Pat i Tiffany praktički sami u Pennsylvaniji.
Kvalitetne romantične komedije su ugrožena vrsta u filmskom svijetu. Nadajmo se da je Silver Linings Playbook samo jedan od predvodnika oporavka i da čemo uskoro gledati još ovakvih žanrovskih uspješnica.