Look for the silver lining

Rating: 9/10 (9 December 2012)

Author James Redfield said, "The challenge is to find the silver lining in every event, no matter how negative," but, as French author George Bernanos has pointed out, "one can encounter optimism everywhere – even at the bottom of a bottle." He said, however, that "hope is a risk that must be run. It is the risk of all risks" David O. Russell invites us to take that risk in his offbeat comedy Silver Linings Playbook and it pays off. Based on the 2008 novel by Matthew Quick, the film tells the story of two people who struggle to help each other out of the emotional hole they have dug for themselves and, like David and Lisa and the recent Rust and Bone, demonstrates that the affection people have for each other can begin to break through the limitations caused by their distress.
Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper), a former substitute teacher, is an optimist who looks for the silver linings in life, believing that things happen for a reason. His motto "excelsior" does not, however, lead him "ever upward," (except when he takes too many meds) but he believes that it helps him to maintain an even keel. Having just been released from a Baltimore psychiatric facility where he was diagnosed as bipolar, partially as a result of a violent incident involving his wife Nikki (Brea Bee), Pat tells his family, mother Dolores (Jacki Weaver) and father Pat Sr. (Robert de Niro) that he is "solid," but as Bernanos has stated, "a health bulletin is only worth something if it is signed by a doctor, not by the patient." Pat's tendency to emotional outbursts surfaces again in the office of his therapist Dr. Patel (Anupam Kher) when he hears the song that was played at his wedding, a so-called test by his doctor to gauge the limits of his control which, as the incident reveals is low to non-existent. Not that there is any connection, of course, but his father is no stranger to inappropriate displays of emotion, having been banned from attending home games of the pro-football Philadelphia Eagles because of his violence at the stadium in support of his team. Dad, who is now a bookie, (generally illegal in the United States), has the idea that father-son bonding involves having his son watch football games with him at home every Sunday, but it never seems to work out quite as planned.
When Pat bursts into his parent's room at 4:00 a.m. ranting about the failure of Ernest Hemingway's novel, A Farewell to Arms, to provide the reader with a happy ending, flinging the book through a bedroom window, it tends to reinforce the idea in his parent's mind that he is not as solid as he thinks. Pat wants very much to reunite with his wife Nikki, but there is only one problem – she has taken out a restraining order against him which kind of mucks up his plans. He remains unyielding about this, however, even after he is introduced to and establishes a connection with the much younger Tiffany, played by Jennifer Lawrence in an Oscar-worthy performance.
Though Pat maintains his distance, it is apparent that Tiffany is looking for more than friendship in the relationship. A comrade-in-arms in the mental health department, she has been depressed since her husband was killed in an auto accident and has attempted to compensate by engaging in gratuitous sex in her place of work. Reaching out in friendship, Tiffany agrees to deliver Pat's letter to Nikki in exchange for his agreeing to be her partner in a dance contest, an agreement she does everything in her power to enforce, leading to unforeseen consequences. Backed by a terrific soundtrack that includes music by Alabama Shakes, alt-J, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, Rare Earth, and Stevie Wonder, Silver Linings Playbook works because it is funny, genuine, and emotionally satisfying. Though there may be some clichéd moments, it's relatively easy to find the silver lining.