In spite of some minor flaws, the silver playbook shines

Rating: 8/10 (9 May 2013)

When I saw the name as the director of the film, I was almost sure that this film would be an offbeat romantic comedy and I was right! However, it doesn't mean that the movie is perfect or that great. You know, David O. Russell is a story teller, not a minimalist, not a formalist, it has advantages and disadvantages both. The main advantage is that he tells his story well, but the main disadvantage is that his movies are lack of any art form. I mean watching his movies is like reading a book or listening a story, not cinematic experiences. In the end, I wasn't impressed by the film cinematically or artistically, but liked the story and loved the characters. Depending on his style, his director identity, the story of the movie seriously exhausted me which I can see as a flaw, but the story and the characters saved the film for me. I didn't expect metaphors or deep character studies from the movie, but the movie could have been deeper anyway. This is a sincere film first, it doesn't play to the crowd, but as I know, it has been criticized as it is a formulaic film. Well Yes and No at the same time. The problems, but all of those were minor, of the movie for me are for example the movie was not devastating or intense enough. Yes, this is a romantic comedy, but I would have preferred a The Fighter-like film. At least darker than this film. In other words, this might have been a really depressing film, but it is not. This movie reflects some habits of the director too, for example there is a "merry" family similar with the family in The Fighter etc. As for De Niro, with all my regard, I believe that the actors who were the golden actors or legends of their ages don't play that great when they are old (most of them) Chris Tucker who gave a mind bending performance in The Fifth Element seems out of place in this movie, but the actor adds energy into the movie. Bradley Cooper is pretty good, but sorry not great. As for Lawrance, my first Jennifer Lawrance movie was X-Men First Class and I couldn't warm to her honestly and I thought that she was a bad Mystique in comparison with amazing Rebecca Romijn, but in this movie, I almost fell in love with her and even her crazy character. I loved her character too I confess. She shines, she steals the show from everybody! By the way, a beautiful little detail I caught in the movie was the movie hadn't evil ex wife cliché, it was different (see it and decide for yourself) The dance competition stuff may be makes the movie cliché and conventional, but also sweet and realistic. By the way, it reminded me Little Miss Sunshine. However, the motivations of the characters, their inner worlds aren't handled well, insufficient and a little shallow. We understand them, but we can't enter their inner worlds. The movie has not any problem about emotional involvement, but, not deep enough. I can't feel that these two people are desperate losers or stand for any kind of character in real life. And we witness their life with independent sections, so we cannot internalize the film totally, but all these doesn't affect the whole film much. By the way, it would have been much better, if the film had ended a few minutes earlier. Silver Linings Playbook is still a very good movie for what it is.