Should've just tuned in to an Eagles game -

Rating: 1/10 (18 November 2012)

even if I'm not a football fan. This movie almost convinced me that I would've had a whole lot more fun on my couch with some stove-top popcorn watching some live action touchdowns than I had at the theatre gobsmacked by this menagerie of looney tunes fumbling towards a Hollywood happy ending at any and all cost. Try as I might, felt zero affinity for most of these characters. Though you couldn't find two better looking actors than Bradley Cooper as Pat and Jennifer Lawrence as Tiffany, their characters were either too aggravatingly loud and/or lame to keep me interested or root for them. In short, I found the characterization of Pat's bipolar disorder and his family's (not to mention his analyst and the policemen's) response to be so benign and simplistic to the point of absurdity and as crafty as she is, I also couldn't bring myself to care for the underdog lovestruck (sex-starved?) Tiffany. I found her character a self-serving desperate ding-a-ling and worse, a predator in pursuit of somebody more vulnerable to fix. While I can appreciate that birds of a feather might flock together, these two do not a happy & balanced love match make, unless you have high hopes for sustainable joy between a codependent manipulator and and an emasculated romantic. Hmmm, on second thought... Anyway, such a shame the movie focused so heavily on these two sad sacks because the rest of the head cases were much more likable. Chris Tucker was a hoot and so were Pat's friends, Veronica and Ronnie. I wish, too, that I could've chuckled a little more because believe that some scenes were meant to really have us rolling in the aisles or smiling subversively... but alas, not so much. (Some of the more funny moments are featured in the trailer and even those weren't gut-busters, right?) Found myself checking my watch, time and again. (And this from someone who applauds many performances by the remarkable cast and does enjoy unconventional romcoms. I'd sooner recommend three other films which didn't garner half the hype but are far and away sharper, funnier, and more original: "Eagle vs. Shark", "Happy Accidents" and "The Science of Sleep".) Now, if this film does manage to make it to the Oscar playbook, it would be deplorable and affirmation anew that in Hollywood - as in life - all that's silver doesn't glitter.