Dame Leo trapped in blizzard,
But I had to come here and laugh at the SLP team for milking mental illness to try to get an oscar! Impressive! That photo with the Vice President was embarrassing!
Dame Leo trapped in blizzard,
But I had to come here and laugh at the SLP team for milking mental illness to try to get an oscar! Impressive! That photo with the Vice President was embarrassing!
This is why Julianne Moore has never won an Oscar
It's a very entertaining movie held together by four really good performances (even Jacki's)... Bradley was the one who surprised me the most!
I still haven't watched Lincoln but I think SLP is probably my favorite BP nominee this year.
Aur, I really don't think the mental problems take a back seat. I may be reading too much into something that is merely an entertaining trifle but I think Cooper/Pat feels that losing his wife was losing everything and that with his affliction, he would never have a chance to live a semblance of an adult life and have the things that other adults take for granted. The dance contest was his process of letting go of the past without him even knowing it. How deeply does bi-polarism need to be explored in a comedy, lol? One certainly could see the toll it takes on those suffering from it and on those around them. As I said, I think the great thing about the film is that Russell doesn't choose to explore a condition that is more a biological condition than a psychological one. He treats Pat as fairly as he would treat anyone who doesn't suffer from this disorder. Sounds trite, I know but life goes on filled with minor victories and setbacks. This film is a valentine. I don't think it has to go into a Bergmanian realm to be a great film. I liken this more to a screwball comedy than I do to a rom com anyway.Originally Posted by Aurelius
There’s something about Russell’s style that I cannot put my finger on but makes his movies unmistakably “his”. I’m trying to guess, but I’m not sure: does anybody know if he does something special with the sound design? It seems as if the sound is rawer in his movies, less pristine but quite authentic-feeling, and including a lot of background noise, or something. And I’m also considering the idea that his movies tend to begin with unusually short scenes, quickly edited one after another, that give you very small bits of information very quickly but don’t make a coherent whole until you’re quite a few minutes into the film’s plot. That creates a certain sense of disorientation with a comical edge that comes from the apparent absurdity of those small bits. They wouldn’t be so absurdist if we had all the information, but they create an initial lack of certainty that, I think, helps a lot the tone of the rest of the film, which feels less predictable and more like anything can happen in it. Paired with the raw sound it makes his crazy comedies feel more real, despite the odd, offbeat feeling, and as unpredictable as life.
Now I’m not sure Russell is able to sustain that tone for the two hours of Silver Linings Playbook, but in many scenes you feel a sense of danger that anything can happen despite the proceedings being slightly formulaic. I do think the denouement can feel more formulaic than it is, but I also think it’s not a problem of it being truly formulaic, but of it being rushed: by the moment big things are revealed the movie is already almost two hours long and there’s no time, in the Hollywood mainstream, to start a new conflict between the protagonists. So, I don’t think it makes a lot of sense why the protagonist has such a sudden and well-defined change, but then again, perhaps it’s not necessarily implied that the change is so radical, it may simply be that the movie ends there, but we don’t know about the problems this couple may face and we don’t know for sure that Pat is mostly “cured”.
So, this is a comedy that’s further from formula from a stylistic point of view than from a dramatic point of view, even though it tries to stay away from it in both fronts. It is very good even though it’s not entirely successful, but it’s a bit disappointing that this is the comedy AMPAS has decided to embrace in a year with top work by Wes Anderson, or after years of ignoring the efforts in the genre by Wes again, and also by Charlie Kauffmann, Noah Baumbach, or that wonderful 500 Days of Summer, directors and movies that have re-worked the old American comedy much better.
Russell’s commitment to a rawer, more realistic-looking kind of comedy is helped immensely by the actors. Cooper has an incredibly difficult role that could have been either too dramatic or too broadly comedic, but he walks the fine line between the two masterfully, never hiding or softening any of the most problematic aspects of Pat Solitano, but never wasting, either, a good comedic chance (his reactions when Lawrence is detailing her slutty past are priceless). Lawrence has to walk that line too but I think her character is slightly more clichéd in the script, which doesn’t give us an arc for her or, more precisely, which keeps her arc off-screen so to preserve Pat’s point of view, so when she’s suddenly evolved there’s little we know about the whys. It’s still a great performance but not quite on the masterful level of Cooper’s.
Both DeNiro and Weaver offer solid support, but I think they’ve been slightly over-praised. DeNiro is quite good but not really among the five best in a year overflowing with stunning supporting work from men.
I noticed he did a lot of closeups on the characters' faces, from a little far away, to up on their noses. Maybe that's one part of his style that makes it "his".
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McT, I think Russell's style was far more "his" in the days of Huckabee and Flirting. This film is not bad, but it is broader - and the Russellest part of it is probably that everyone is a misfit.
Eh, I disagree.
You don't think SLP is broader than Huckabees?
LOL, wut?
Maybe broader isn't the right word - but Huckabees wit was philosophical and occasionally indirect. SLP is far mor straightforward and easy.
Ok then, yes. Broad is not a word I would call SLP, Flirting and Huckabees were. SLP still had tonal shifts but they were more subtle and straightforward, as you say, than the other two films.
I think SLP devolves into broadness as the film moves along, certainly when we reach the dance contest.
I will marshall all the forces of darkness to hound you to an assisted suicide - Peter Capaldi, In The Loop
I think the dance contest subverts that kind of endings that are so typical of US films: they win by getting a 5, it's not "they loose but learn a lesson" or "they win through confidence in themselves and overcoming obstacles", which are the usual two outcomes in American "competition" finales. Now, I wouldn’t call it revolutionary, or anything, but it’s not your usual “competition” finale. And the dance itself is VERY funny.
Plus, narratively speaking it’s really well told, when Tiffany disappears and Russell keeps cutting from her (having a drink and flirting with this guy) to Pat, to the family, to the ex-wife… I think there are three/four potential climaxes juggled together (Pat meeting his ex-wife, Tiffany potentially falling back into slutty, self-destructive mode, the possibility of loosing the bet because of that, and DeNiro’s reaction to it all) and Russell navigates through them very well, keeping the tension and editing everything quite wisely.
So no, I don’t think it’s especially broad, I think it’s clever even if the outcome is an easy one.
And yes, I think this is a less sophisticated and original artefact than Huckabees, but I also think it’s better rounded.
Holy shit. Did anyone notice Tiffany mouthed "I'm pregnant" at the end?
I did not notice this the first two times I saw it.... or is Wikipedia lying?
"I'm a firm believer in karma, and I think this situation is a huge learning lesson for me.
To grow and expand as a spiritual human being. I want to lead a country one day for all I know".
It's lying.
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Alot of people mention the 15 yr age difference between the actors.
But as far as the characters go, Pat easily could have been something like 34 and Tiffany easily could have been 25. A 9 yr age difference is not that bad, really.
I see where you're coming from, but I'm not sure this is entirely fair. I think people are so used to seeing the As-Good-As-It-Gets/Garden-State "I-Will-Fix-You" story that they're reading it into a story where it doesn't exist. Cooper's main struggle with mental illness throughout this movie is agreeing to go back on medication. But for the most part this is a story about a guy who is coming out of years of institutionalization that's really worked for him, and despite a few stumbles along the way, he has largely taken control of his illness. For me the fact that it doesn't dwell on how fucked these people are is a large part of this movie's charm.
It's not his baby.
It's Danny's.
It has to belong to the guy she met at the bar like 5 minutes before the dance competition.
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