Where was the playbook?

Rating: 3/10 (21 December 2012)

I wanted to like this movie, I really did. I had read about the plot and its depiction of mental health issues and I was hoping to see a wonderfully nuanced movie with people fighting to get well. Instead, this movie was clichéd and clumsy. It was a movie without direction, it had no playbook.
I'm going to assume that the book has more depth than the director cared to give the characters and that this is just a really poor adaptation to film. The characters are so incredibly flat and one dimensional and not at all a good representation of people with mental health issues. In fact, I think some damage was done here as not all depressed people get manic and destroy things at the drop of a hat or run out and sleep with a bunch of people. They're not all at odds with their doctors. There were just so many bad generalizations in this movie about the mentally ill I can't even list them all. The entire premise makes no sense. Why would you even set two people up who are at those points in their lives? It would be reckless to set up a woman still binging on sex with a man who was obsessed with his wife. I could go on and on. The entire story just didn't work. At all.
Aside from the script the film craft was one of the worst I've seen this year! I counted about 5 gaffs in the movie before it was even halfway through. These were not small gaffs but obvious things you'll notice and I'm not sure how the editor missed. In addition to that, the movie just didn't flow well either. The running scenes looking staged and lifeless. He wears a trash bag to work up sweat...but never seems to sweat. He was supposed to be out of shape, but is definitely not out of shape when they show flashbacks. So many gaffs.
I'm guessing people were just voting this movie highly because of Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence are attractive together. Their performances are OK, but the movie falls apart so thoroughly around them that it's unimaginable why anyone would enjoy this film.