Unexpected Brilliance

Rating: 9/10 (29 November 2012)

I went to see this film with a few friends really not expecting much, but came out with a feeling you really don't get an awful lot. It really made me think and feel, and that is ultimately what the best films do.
It comes across through trailers and short synopses as a standard run of the mill love story. The fact its got Bradley Cooper in it merely compounded this for me; I was debating not bothering at all. But, but: Bradley Cooper is sensational. He delivers a performance I did not believe possible - I see him in an entirely new light. He is helped by the fact that Jennifer Lawrence is mindblowingly good. Fierce, funny and utterly believable, the two of them convey a chemistry that is not matched often.
The story is so much more than meets the eye too. Like I said, at first I believed it to be a run of the mill love film, but it is intertwined with so much more emotional aspects, family crises, mental illness and even the progress of the Philadelphia Eagles. I really don't want to give too much away because it is so cleverly binded together, but safe to say it is so much more than I first thought, and I thoroughly loved it.
They say don't judge a book by its cover and it could scarcely be truer in this instance. A real hidden gem, and an utterly fantastic film. A must see.