Silver Linings Playbook

Rating: 8/10 (14 September 2013)

Silver Linings Playbook (David O. Russell, 2012) An absorbing film with top-notch performances from the main actors, Silver Linings Playbook has much to recommend it. Its structure is a bit predictable, but Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence just about make up for that. It's good to see DeNiro in a serious role that doesn't send up previous roles he's played. Without having read the book, I'm at a loss to examine if the movie is faithful to it or not, but that's not always necessary in assessing an adaptation. I was highly impressed with this film in the early scenes, but as it went on I felt like I sort of knew where it was going, and for the most part I was right.
One plot development that was pleasantly unexpected was how Pat Sr.'s OCD began to tie in with the romantic plot between Pat Jr. and Tiffany; I thought that was very well executed. At one point I wasn't sure which of the Pats I wanted to jump into the screen and hit. That is a testament to the fine acting displayed by both Cooper and DeNiro, that they were completely behind the choices made by their characters and did not downplay them or do a halfassed job with them. Storywise it also showed the similarities between the two characters: Pat Jr. may not have suffered from OCD as such, but he definitely had his obsessions to grapple with. Jacki Weaver should also be singled out for praise, playing her own character as having to deal with the issues of both husband and son, and doing so with warmth, grace, and humor. According to IMDb, Jennifer Lawrence was the most excited to meet Weaver out of all the rest of the cast, due to Weaver's role in Animal Kingdom.
Probably not the best film of 2012 (I still have yet to see a few of the big names, Argo and Zero Dark Thirty among them) but a very good film for all of that. 8/10