Silver Linings Playbook - watch out for sings!

Rating: 10/10 (13 March 2014)

Emotional and heartbreaking events in life actually have a lot of comedy in it. It is inevitable to encounter events that make us blue, but it is possible that these events end in laughter. David O Russell made this film for his son, who suffers from a mental illness, and he hopes to inspire everyone through telling this romantic and beautiful story.
This story is about a bipolar patient, Pat, who tries to adapt into his social life after spending 8-months in a mental institution. And he is determined to get back to his wife, Nikki, despite the restraining order authorized by the court. He tries different method to get in touch with his wife, but with disapproval and opposition from his family. In a coincident, he meets Tiffany, a young woman with mysterious mental and life problem of her own, in a dinner with his friend. Pat and Tiffany develop a strange friendship because of their similar illness.Tiffany offers to help Pat, only if Pat is willing to attend a dancing competition with her. And so they begin to see each other more during regular rehearsals. The whole story exacerbates into something far more serious, but very comedic. With fights, heartbreaks, doubts and reconcile, Pat finally lets Nikki go, and realizes that Tiffany has loved him since they met.
This was my second David O Russell's film, and the first was "The Fighter". He has a very unique style in film-making and screen writing. His films usually have both dramatic and comedic elements. For instance, the diner scene, in which Pat and Tiffany discuss why she loses her job. The scene turns from a funny yet strange scene, to a very serious and heartbreaking scene as Tiffany gets mad about Pat saying she is crazier than him, which also cause Pat's illusion to occur. Another characteristic of his film is that more emphasis is put on character development rather than plot development. Each of the character in the film has distinct changes in the film. Also, David likes to assemble a great ensemble cast and demands the actors to put in their 120% effort into their performance to help him tell stories in a humanistic way.
There were also 2 wonderful things in the film - Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. Cooper and Lawrence gave unforgettable performances in this film. Comedic timings were great, and emotional scenes were powerful. I love their chemistry in the diner scene and the fight on the street, their facial expressions and emotions were very natural. And also during the dancing competition, especially how Lawrence played Tiffany's complicated feeling towards Pat. Tiff enjoys dancing with Pat a lot, and think it is romantic, but trying to conceal her affection towards Pat because Nikki is present. These little bits of reaction and expressions did not come to my mind during the first time I watched the film, so I was quite unhappy about the result at the Oscars that year because other nominees gave powerful performances as well. But after watching the film again and again, and falling in love with the characters and the actors. I begin to think that Jennifer Lawrence's performance is award worthy. Her performance is not like other Oscar winning performances, such as with loads of crying, break-downs, and scolding, but this does not mean that her performance is not Oscar- worthy.
Except these, the film also meant quite a lot to me. Throughout the story, Pat's mind is only filled with "Nikki, Nikki and Nikki". Everything he is doing is an attempt to get back to Nikki. His love towards Nikki is undeniable, he really loves Nikki with his heart and soul. This is why he cannot see how much Tiffany has done for him, he cannot see that Nikki does not love him anymore and he does not see those signs. Sometimes, we would be like Pat, we are too focused on something, and we completely ignored the things that are happening around us. Maybe we would also lose our mind and go completely irrational because of one person. But sometimes we would also be like Tiffany, we give so much and we forget about our own needs, and we lose ourselves in the process of giving too much. Would it be great that everyone can pay attention to the signs? And would it be great that people do not get moody and sad because they want others to know that they have certain expectations from them? Of course it is impossible to avoid these things, but it is possible to get over these things. True friendship or true love is not calculated by how much we have given or sacrificed, but can be by how two people positively influence each other during this relationship.
A beautifully romantic-comedy-drama film, with wonderfully written characters, funny lines, meaningful storyline and 2 young actors giving great performances — if it's me reading the signs, these are the descriptions of "Silver Linings Playbook".