The Laws of Attraction

Rating: 8/10 (12 September 2017)

Director David O. Russell brings us a movie about the laws of attraction and tells us as much about those folks who fight the forces of nature as those whose gravitational pull is strong enough to bring others into their world. The variety of characters fighting societal trends spreads outside our little circle of two, each fighting their own forced separation from their former spouses. It is blunt and sweet, it is both frustrating and rewarding, and all the time we know that we are watching a formula romantic comedy.... and we don't fight it!
Bradley Coopers' bi-polar "Pat" is overly hopeful, blunt, romantically triggered, and is overly everything in all he does which is hard to take at times. Much like bi-polar patients. They drain your energy when you fight their logic and emotions, even though the reaction to solve issues is healthy. We begin to see that we all have issues that need too be addressed, and as a believer in self-help, I backed off my annoyance of Pat.
Pat meets Jennifer Lawrence's personality disorder affected "Tiffany"and fights his immediate attraction due to what he (and society) tells him he should be focused on. He/we judge and repel, despite our attraction. I mean, who isn't attracted by Jennifer Lawrence?
It is Tiffany's (out of) control of her personal issues that leads our story directions t in Philly during football season. There is certain pop-culture pulling us along and rewarding us, but the biggest complaint from others regarding "Pat" keeping it together as the plot boils misses a realism of mentally imbalanced folks integrated into their families and neighborhood's that their illness can sometimes appear to be in remission. An alcoholic is not always drunk, a bigot isn't always wearing a white hood and a patients' illness is not always being publicly aired.
The last point that led others to recommend "Silver Linings Playbook" is that the bluntness and honesty on display were comedic but welcome in todays' land of socially muted folks more concerned with politically correctness than the reality we live in. Call it what it is, that's a part of the playbook that our couple shares that we relate to.