Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell, 2012)

[forizzer69]

I'm slowly working on a review for the film - hopefully I'll be done tomorrow night - but I wanted to say something about it and hopefully others have seen it to so we can talk about it a bit. This was the film that really put me in the mindset for this year's Oscar season. It's charming, it's very funny, it's flawed but it's Hollywood, and it has it's magnificent qualities. Mostly, Robert De Niro, who I cannot praise more. This is his best work since the '80s and just slightly above the work he did in Flawless and Heat. He commands the screen with his perfect take on the father. He is both sympathetic as a man hopeless to his disorder (obsessive-compulsive) but also as the archetypal "tough love is love" father figure -- warm, loving, but also very vulnerable and edgy -- with genuine humanity. Today, I saw the word gravitas, so I'll use it. He has it. The film doesn't otherwise, but as I said, it is charming and an absolute grinner. You may question its depth or sincerity, but at its worst it's an awkward attempt to move whoever views it into a loving mindset - and that's not bad.



That said, I do not like Bradley Cooper's interpretation of his character, nor was I too fond of Jennifer Lawrence's, but at least she had some good moments and a tenuous grasp on her character's psychology. In my review, I wrote "She has great rejoinders". Don't know if I'll keep that, but she's great at handling cracking dialogue. She's clearly an actress who works as well as the director is invested in her, so while she is very catching (yes David, we get it) more could have been accomplished on an emotional level and it could have felt more personal. Her collaboration with Debra Granik on Winter's Bone moved her to greatness - this is her next best performance, it's good/it works/it's sufficient, but I believe there are a lot more wonderful things to come from Jennifer Lawrence in the future. Bradley Cooper, I'm not sure. I hope so. I saw an interview he did last year (he said how working with De Niro helped him a lot as an actor and it is without question that his most effective moments are with his idol) and he is genuinely open and loving, yet there seems to be a barrier between his emotions and how he put himself in his roles. Maybe he simply needs to go deeper because he seems to have the right idea, but with charisma and no execution.

The film also uses Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash's beautiful The Girl From North Country to beautiful effect.

NOMINATIONS/WINS FOR SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
Best Supporting Actor (Robert De Niro) *
Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Lawrence)
Best Adapted Screenplay (David O. Russell)



But I still have a lot to see. (I'll update this post with the full review once done.)

[Andersson H.]

So I take it you're not a Raging Bull Fan..

[Vincent Blanchett]

Supporting actress of Lawrence?

[forizzer69]

Nooooooooooooooo - that's my favorite Robert De Niro performance! I just made a mistake. It's probably because The Deer Hunter was literally the last great performance I've seen him give - I saw it for the first time last year - so maybe that's why it felt newer in my mind. Do you love his performance in Raging Bull, too? It's so good!

I put Jennifer Lawrence supporting, but she can definitely be called lead. I don't think she's given enough perspective - the emotional payoff felt more for Cooper than her character, for example - but then again I also put Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy supporting. She's certainly important, and I might move her to lead if my mind changes about the ending (I would like to see it again, simply because it's a fun time out), but as of now I feel the story is about Pat reconditioning himself to the outside world, and that story alternates between him with his family and him with Tiffany - before coming to a head.

[forizzer69]

Here's a site where ya'll can get passes, as I did, for this film: http://www.getscreening.com/free-mov...ponse=carousel

[erikdean]

I liked this quite a bit but I'm surprised it's such a major awards player. It's certainly enjoyable and funny and tonally crazy (yet deftly handled) but it doesn't feel like what a domestic family drama Oscar movie is usually like. Not that it has to, it just never seemed like the stakes were that high.

Lawrence was good, one of her better performances (but also a better role). De Niro was ok and his awards talk has me baffled. He's got one small crying scene (he's never been a very good cryer) and it's ok. The rest of the time is not a lot of out of the box De Niro acting. Jacki Weaver kinda cracked me up for apparently thinking she was playing Edith Bunker by way of Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream. Someone should have told her what movie she was in. None of that really matters though because this is Bradley Cooper's show. He was freakin' insanely good. A perfectly modulated performance, finding the right time when something uncomfortable was also funny and when it wasn't. I've never seen him like this and wouldn't have expected it from him. A great performance. An Oscar performance? Eh, we'll see. I'm still not totally convinced.

[veritas]

Loved this. "Tonally crazy" is such a good way of describing it, 'cause like...what?

Not really sure what I expected in the first place, but I thought the whole thing was just insanely enjoyable. Perfect Thanksgiving weekend material.

[Cesky]

I liked this quite a bit but I'm surprised it's such a major awards player. It's certainly enjoyable and funny and tonally crazy (yet deftly handled) but it doesn't feel like what a domestic family drama Oscar movie is usually like. Not that it has to, it just never seemed like the stakes were that high.

Lawrence was good, one of her better performances (but also a better role). De Niro was ok and his awards talk has me baffled. He's got one small crying scene (he's never been a very good cryer) and it's ok. The rest of the time is not a lot of out of the box De Niro acting. Jacki Weaver kinda cracked me up for apparently thinking she was playing Edith Bunker by way of Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream. Someone should have told her what movie she was in. None of that really matters though because this is Bradley Cooper's show. He was freakin' insanely good. A perfectly modulated performance, finding the right time when something uncomfortable was also funny and when it wasn't. I've never seen him like this and wouldn't have expected it from him. A great performance. An Oscar performance? Eh, we'll see. I'm still not totally convinced.

I basically completely agree. I liked it quite a lot, but I can't imagine a critic giving this a 100 or a solid A.

I thought Cooper was better than Lawrence, so if she's winning, he better get nominated. Ultimately, I think the comedy worked better than any of the serious moments.

[City Lights]

I'm going to go all Veri on this shit.

It was really really good. Will post more in a bit after I digest it some more.

[bosk]

Totally forgot this thread existed.

Yeah, I loved this. Cooper, Lawrence, and De Niro were all brilliant.

[dyedred19]

I really liked this. I might have even loved it.

A few of the scenes ring very B-level, particularly the ones involving football, but most of it is really wonderful. I can't believe that I have to look at Bradley Cooper as a real actor now. He was great. Jennifer Lawrence matches him the entire way, too. I even thought DeNiro was delightful. Just an incredibly well-rounded bunch and it was a pleasure watching them work off of each other. DeNiro's speech to Cooper about going after Lawrence had me misty.

So yeah, a delight. I don't see this winning Best Picture, but noms galore for its actors, its screenplay and I hope David O. Russell's direction, which was really beautiful.

[City Lights]

I really liked this. I might have even loved it.

A few of the scenes ring very B-level, particularly the ones involving football, but most of it is really wonderful. I can't believe that I have to look at Bradley Cooper as a real actor now. He was great. Jennifer Lawrence matches him the entire way, too. I even thought DeNiro was delightful. Just an incredibly well-rounded bunch and it was a pleasure watching them work off of each other. DeNiro's speech to Cooper about going after Lawrence had me misty.

So yeah, a delight. I don't see this winning Best Picture, but noms galore for its actors, its screenplay and I hope David O. Russell's direction, which was really beautiful.

I'm still trying to develop a legitimate review, but you pretty much nail it here! My brief brief thoughts: Cooper was a revelation. First time I've liked him in a role since Alias. Lawrence, though, really steals it for me. DeNiro and Weaver were perfectly nutty.

[Ben7]

I just saw this with some friends as a Thanksgiving get together. I thought it was really good. I'm curious about all the Oscar talk for Lawrence though. I thought she was good, but I don't know if I thought she was Best Actress caliber "great" in this. (I only say that because I know a lot of people seem to have her as #1 in their predictions). I was really impressed with Robert De Niro, and I feel that Bradley Cooper is taking a step in the right direction if he wants to one day win an Oscar himself.

But, aside from the Oscar talk, I liked this enough to recommend it to my friends - most of whom I only recommend lighter films to. I'll probably check this out again if I get a chance.

[lazarus]

I was see-sawing with this film the whole time. So many good parts, so many that tested my suspension of disbelief. But there were elements that could have been awful that felt true and down to earth (Chris Tucker).

Cooper, yes, is a revelation in that he's done crap up til now. And he was as good as he needed to be. Is his work one of the year's five best? Should it even be mentioned in the same breath alongside work by DDL or Denzel? Not really.

Lawrence, on the other hand...she's already proven her toughness and earthiness before, and this role was not far away in that regard from her roles in Winter's Bone and Hunger Games. But she's a force of nature, a natural talent, and what she does here IS more resonant and vital than Cooper because of how authentic she is every second she's on the screen. She doesn't need tics, or yelling, or music, or editing, and has accomplished half the work by her presence alone.

This sounds like fanboy slobbering but I've never waxed poetic about the actress before. But there's a reason why there are some people are pegging her as a front-runner and that's because she just has that spark that connects with an audience. It doesn't hurt that she looks damn sexy for half of the film, and her character as written is given great assistance from the device of the letter revelation. It makes one reconsider half of what we've seen already, and everything that follows in a new light, making Tiffany lovable as well.

I wasn't crazy about the ending, which was directed as about as conventionally as imaginable, all the way up to the last shot. Really lame, and send me out of the theatre on less than a high.

[djlaughs]

I reeeeeally loved this. I had a great time at the theater - the audience was really eating it up. I was pretty much laughing or crying the whole time. Great acting - thought De Niro was the MVP.

[jeanne_dielman]

I liked it. Not a great film, but really enjoyable. Has the pizzazz of a great '30s screwball comedy, at times. The ending was neat, but the depiction of mental illness wasn't. Bradley Cooper was great here.

Also, lol on DeNiro's "crying."

[lazarus]

Actually, compared to times when De Niro has cried on screen before (like GoodFellas in particular), I thought he was very natural this time around. Certainly wasn't forcing it.

[steve4922]

I liked this quite a bit but I'm surprised it's such a major awards player. It's certainly enjoyable and funny and tonally crazy (yet deftly handled) but it doesn't feel like what a domestic family drama Oscar movie is usually like. Not that it has to, it just never seemed like the stakes were that high.

Lawrence was good, one of her better performances (but also a better role). De Niro was ok and his awards talk has me baffled. He's got one small crying scene (he's never been a very good cryer) and it's ok. The rest of the time is not a lot of out of the box De Niro acting. Jacki Weaver kinda cracked me up for apparently thinking she was playing Edith Bunker by way of Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream. Someone should have told her what movie she was in. None of that really matters though because this is Bradley Cooper's show. He was freakin' insanely good. A perfectly modulated performance, finding the right time when something uncomfortable was also funny and when it wasn't. I've never seen him like this and wouldn't have expected it from him. A great performance. An Oscar performance? Eh, we'll see. I'm still not totally convinced.

Exactly how I felt about this. A good film, but the awards attention is surprising.

[Scarmi]

This had some good moments, but also some really laughably awful ones--every scene involving football in particular is way too long and ends up going in a totally crazy, amateurish direction--and as a whole I really didn't like it at all. In a lot of ways I found it kind of crass, awkward, and retrograde, playing subjects and behavior that really aren't very funny for laughs (often with really dumb lines that themselves aren't very funny). Also, the criticism people have made regarding Jennifer Lawrence's character that she's a totally unrealistic male fantasy sex object or whatever feels lazy and unfair but is actually totally appropriate, and the obviously incredibly sexy way she's filmed really doesn't help. I like Lawrence well enough as an actress and she's pretty good in this (much better than the character deserves!) and I'm fine wiith her winning the Oscar or whatever, but she has some horrible moments, too--the part she walks through the bar pissed off and crying reminded me of that hilariously bad .gif from her NYT thing a couple year's ago. I also don't get why people are praising Cooper in this--he's totally one-note and totally obvious the whole film.

[ISA]

I loved this. After a v slow pace Lincoln last night, this movie was a great one to see to close out my long holiday week.

I like this movie a lot. It was enough emotion, comedy, and "what to learn from the movie". I thought Lawrence was excellent, but I have to say Cooper surprised me the most. I usually just think he's hot! I disagree with Scarmi's post above which said he found Cooper one note. I thought he is crazy, manic, and vulnerable at the same time as Pat! Even at the end of the movie - as sweet as it is, you could still tell they both are crazy!!

I like this.