A game of two halves

Rating: 7/10 (12 January 2013)

The movie was a traditional romantic comedy with a touch of social commentary on mental illness at the start. It was quite entertaining, Jennifer Lawrence very sexy and the the general level of acting was very good. I am not that surprised to see a number of Oscar nominations but given the lack of gravitas in the movie as a whole I would not expect to see any of it's actors winning the award. As regards Bradley Cooper, I have no direct experience of people with Bipolar disorder but have with schizophrenia and he seemed quite convincing in the start of the movie. His size made his frenetic episodes quite frightening especially in the confines of his parents' smallish house and he had me concerned for the welfare of his parents. HOwever, instead of a bloodbath what we got was a bit of father-son slapping and then a remorseful son gets back on his meds. After that is is basically a traditional romantic comedy.