Crazy in Love

Rating: 8/10 (5 January 2013)

This film is recommended.
" Every cloud must have a silver lining, Wait until the sun shines through, Smile my honey dear, while I kiss away each tear, Or else I shall be melancholy too! "

Lyrics from My Melancholy Baby by E. Burnett, G. Norton, & M.Watson

Love is strange. The search for Mr. or Mrs. Right comes with many obstacles and every relationship comes with its own special baggage. Some of its contents are neatly folded and with room to spare, nicely hidden in each fold while others are ugly and messy and filled to the brim. It's the latter type of baggage that we find in Bill O. Russell's dramedy, Silver Linings Playbook, a romantic comedy that always entertains, even if it willingly sacrifices realism in favor of that evasive feel good feeling.
Meet Pat and Tiffany, both bi-polar and both in need of love. Pat is just off a broken marriage for nearly a year, the result of his angry issues. Recently released from a mental institution due to a nervous breakdown, he encounters Tiffany, a tough-as-nails promiscuous widow, hasn't quite made it in the world of dating. Neither have the social skills or reserve to be seen as followers of the norm. In fact, they're the type of person that one avoids at all costs. Quirky with a capital Q, to put it nicely.
In fact, everyone in this Philadelphia neighborhood seems to be off kilter. Dad ( a solid Robert DeNiro ), an avid Eagles fan with anger issues of his own, has OCD and a heavy gambling problem. Mom ( Jackie Weaver, good but underused ) is the typical loving enabler, trying to calm everyone around her. All of their friends and relatives have less than happy lives. There's nowhere to go but up in this part of town.
Director / writer David O. Russell takes a very familiar scenario, two lovable misfits battling the odds, and plays it a little too safe. He seems more concerned with making a crowd- pleasing melodrama without any real consequences to his well-drawn characters. Russell's dialog is insightful and clever, quite poetic at times. but his plot structure is all over the place. He places his characters in different situations to force their reactions which ring false. Their highs and lows are mere plot devices to advance the story, but never go deeply into their mental instability or fragile state of mind. His intriguing lead characters deserve more than the film's predictable (and far fetched ) outcome.
However, it is the two main actors and their natural chemistry together that takes Silver Linings Playbook to a more honest and emotional level for the movie-going audience. Both actors lash out at each other, creating a commanding presence on screen. Bradley Cooper has never been better. He conveys the angst and confusion, that twisted sense of optimism that his character needs to survive. Jennifer Lawrence plays her damaged character openly raw and masking the internal pain. It is a remarkable portrait of vulnerability and inner strength. Yet what makes their performances so strong and memorable are the subtle glances, the silences, and words not shared between the cruelty of their actions.
If only the film would have been more courageous and truer to the issue of mental illness and its effects on loved ones, Silver Linings Playbook could have been a great film. It scores periodically whenever it starts to think outside the box and not follow the winning formula of most romantic comedies. But more often, the film is content to settle on staying inbounds and following that norm. GRADE: B
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