Good movie, deals with the heartbreaks in life and our searching for the Silver Linings.

Rating: Null/10 (16 May 2013)

As are many good movies, this one is based on the book by the same name. My wife is an avid reader and finished the book not long before we saw the movie, in glorious detail and superb sound on Blu-Ray. She says the movie is basically faithful to the book, but of course has to leave a lot out to stay at an approximate 2-hours running time. One thing she mentioned in particular, as a change, Pat Sr. seems a bit more mellow and likable in the role De Niro creates for the movie.
Bradley Cooper is the lead as Pat , and we see him coming back to his parents' home after an 8-month absence. After he had come home to find his wife in the shower, naked, with another man, he sort of went berserk and ended up in a mental hospital. But when he gets home, trying hard to use all of the tools he was taught to tame his bi-polar disorder, he continues to talk as if he and his wife will reconcile.
His good friends and neighbors, a couple, invite him for dinner and to meet the wife's younger sister, Jennifer Lawrence as Tiffany . She has had a fairly recent tragedy, her husband died in an unfortunate incident. But Pat and Tiffany get along from the start as fire and ice, oil and water, vinegar and bleach. In other words, they clash. Usually in this type of movie it means they are actually meant for each other.
The movie has a really fine cast, rounded out by Robert De Niro as Pat Sr. He has his own issues, a bit 'OCD' having to arrange his remotes exactly a certain way on the table, and now running a gambling business of sorts, puts a lot of faith on 'karma', if Pat Jr. watches a game with him on TV, for example, their Philadelphia Eagles have a better chance of winning.
So basically all the main characters have serious issues, and the movie is about overcoming them and figuring out a way to make it through life and relationships. One thing I like is the use of dance as a catalyst for Pat Jr.'s recovery, he is basically roped in by Tiffany to learn a routine and be her partner in an upcoming dance competition. It also ends up getting tied to a gambling bet, but that is minor. The real idea is that people, and we see it also in autistic children, often an art, like dance or music or painting can help them overcome many issues and function at a higher level. Dance was able to do this for Pat Jr.
Jennifer Lawrence received the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance as Tiffany, and it is easy to see why. At her young age she is already an acting force, and when you look at her various roles to date, all different, it makes sense.