Bradley Cooper and a bunch of other people

Rating: 7/10 (12 March 2013)

This movie was not a waste of money; however, nor did it bowl me over, as it did some reviewers here. It didn't move me. It didn't elate me. There were not that many laughs. I didn't particularly empathise with the characters. (But then I haven't read the book...)
The best part of the movie was Bradley Cooper, who played Pat Solatano Jr. The camera loves this man.
Like many leading men, Cooper does not have a huge acting range. He does his thing well, and doesn't mess with it. For example, in this movie his anger is central to the story, but the blowouts here were not shown with full emotional intensity. We don't see him truly lose it emotionally.
However, I feel that in this movie Cooper did push his range to the limit. He delivered a fairly convincing performance of what it's like for a very, very charming and attractive man to be afflicted with bipolar disorder.
I agree with everyone that Jennifer Lawrence's performance as the complex Tiffany character was surprising and quite good.
The situation and dialogue at the Solatano household seemed jumbled and sometimes a little forced, with people talking loudly and at the same time. I suppose it's realistic when portraying a volatile Italian-American family like this, but I found it difficult to follow at times. I was also thinking that this is one family I would not want to move in next door to me.
There were many detailed references to American football, bookmaking, and other aspects of American life that were sometimes difficult to follow (even for Americans, I suspect).
Jackie Weaver was good, but Robert de Niro didn't really deliver. I don't know whether it was the character or the actor though. I just wasn't moved. The scenes where he got close to Cooper felt uncomfortable, although perhaps that's what they were going for. It seems difficult to tell Pat Solatano Sr apart from Jack Byrnes.
I thought it was unrealistic that Pat Jr. would run into his therapist at a ball game, and that the therapist would later attend his dance performance. How many therapists would do that? The constant arrival of the same cop was also a little unrealistic.
Finally, the movie was a little too predictable and a little too slow for me.
Perhaps this review is overly negative. I wonder how much of my reaction is based on my discomfort about mental illness? Perhaps. It's a difficult subject to deal with without alienating the viewer.