Magic In Silver Lining

Rating: 9/10 (2 March 2013)

Silver Linings Playbook might be beyond than just a romantic comedy. It is probably also a verisimilitude about people with bipolar disorders and families falling apart. It may offer more to the story, but despite all, it still centers to the romance than anything else. It's not groundbreaking to the genre, though it doesn't have to. For some reason, it sort of feels quite refreshing. The film is compellingly and genuinely charming. It has a lot of memorable performances. It can be predictable at times but it's easy to ignore those by the film's merits. Silver Linings Playbook is easily one of the best recent romcoms we get.
It did not start out as a romantic comedy, though. The film begins as a drama about a guy struggling with his condition and longs to win back his ex-wife. The whole romcom formula only appears when it introduces the connections between the two leads. Some points can be typical, but they are thankfully not noticeable because of its clever storytelling and writing. The film's humor, like any romantic comedies, aims to be awkward, but their delivery is pretty natural instead of hamming up. In most romcoms, the screen couple aren't usually appealing. The biggest reason is because their romance always ends up being empty, unlike here their love leads to something. They rather express their honest mistakes, but when they don't, they just share their sweet side to each other.
Apart from the romantic comedy is a drama comedy that deals with Pat's complicated life and family by his serious condition. It is suppose to be both funny and affecting but it never ignores the darkness of their problems. Just like David O. Russell's recent films, he manages to keep it heartfelt and utterly entertaining. The performances also carries the film. Bradley Cooper has always been charming in his romantic roles but here gets to do more like bursting his character's expressions by his mental illness and he's quite convincing at doing it. Same thing goes to Jennifer Lawrence. Well they are both amazing, leading a remarkable chemistry. Robert De Niro is, without a doubt, terrific that this could be one of his memorable recent performances.
It's a simple fun love story about two people sharing their same life problems, or maybe not simple. It is both light and dark but in a less serious way. They go crazy, fall in love, and talk about ridiculous "superstitions", but that's what makes it so likable. We could forgive its minor flaws. This is a rare romantic comedy that isn't exasperating, artificial, and hollow. It is awkwardly hilarious, and has genuine love and charm that we needed in the genre. It finds something wonderful in the end. This film is a silver lining to this becoming stale genre.