Hard-edged romantic comedy embraces mental problems.

Rating: 8/10 (5 March 2013)

Silver Linings Playbook reminds us how much weight a conventional Hollywood genre can bear, if you trust it. By the Romantic Comedy conventions, two attractive young people meet "cute", i.e., with instinctive mutual dislike, then overcome the obstacles to romantic fulfillment at the end. In the classic theatre comedy, the young sexual energies that may threaten to disrupt the social order are instead harnessed to renew it through the ritual of marriage.
The film refreshens the genre in several ways. Its romantic heroes both have clinical psychological disorders, with self-destructive, even violent, impulses. But both are suffering from the loss of their life mates. Pat (Bradley Cooper) was institutionalized after beating up his high school teaching colleague he caught in the shower with wife Nikki (Brea Bee). Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) is a recovering sex addict whose husband died -- coincidentally, after she'd lost sexual interest in him. The seriousness of their respective losses encourages our acceptance, even identification, with these unusual romantic leads.
Part of the film's brilliance lies in its realistic depiction of these troubled psyches, with their rampaging highs and lows. Part lies in the witty, complex dialogue. Within a speech, even within a sentence, a character will swerve between extremes in sentiment, desire, self- understanding, outreach and retreat. For more see www.yacowar.blogspot.com.