SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

Before I pick a big bone with this Silver Linings Playbook, let me first tell you I loved this film. Especially the end, of course, but all the way through.

I’ve never been a fan of Bradley Cooper, (actually, I don’t even remember seeing him in anything! Just gossip sites!,) but he didn’t annoy me much here. And most of his deliveries were spot-on. [Note: It’s weird–I looked him up after I wrote this to see if I had seen him but didn’t know it, and it turns out I was almost correct. He has a lot of credits, but I’ve seen none of them except for the two Hangover movies, and I guess those performances of his didn’t register with me.]

Bradley Cooper and jennifer Lawrence.

For awhile now, I’ve thought that Jennifer Lawrence has been the best actress to come along in a long time, ever since I saw her in 2010’s Winter’s Bone. And DeNiro—fuhgeddaboudit! He’s as perfect in this film as he always is. He can do no wrong in my book, except guest on talk shows, where he’s absolutely brutal.

So, my bone is this—there’s nothing funny about such severe mental illness as the two main characters have! I saw this film at an industry screening, and the buffoons behind me were guffawing all the way though it! The rest of the audience wasn’t as loud, but was still chuckling to see these sad neuroses played out in front of our eyes. I was cringing and feeling awful for mental patients and thanking my lucky stars that I don’t go though pain like that, while these morons were snickering at it. (If you were one of them, I apologize for the name calling, and invite you to let me know your thoughts in the Comments section below, because I just didn’t see it as funny.)

So, are we supposed to ignore the anguish because it’s coming from two semi-attractive people, rather than people we picture as having this condition? Being the Empath that I am, I just could not do that.

Brilliant DeNiro.

So, there you have it. The first two thirds was just downright painful to me, with a couple of laughs, mainly from DeNiro, thrown in. When it became amusing to me was when all of a sudden, these two weren’t crazy anymore, with no real explanation of how that came to be. (And trust me, dancing just doesn’t cut it. Otherwise, there would be no crazy people in clubs, which, trust me, as someone who knows it all too well, is far from the case.)

As my father told me all the time, (therefore ruining all sad movies and TV shows for me,) I know I have to remember this isn’t a true story, and therefore, they can take plenty of poetic license with medical conditions. But, I’m sorry, I just can’t laugh at mental illness. And they both appeared to have very serious issues.

On the other hand, although he was also playing a person with mental health issues, Chris Tucker’s comedic performance added so much, especially because we couldn’t “see” his character’s craziness. We knew about his malady only because he was in the mental hospital and not because we saw his condition manifested. [Note: I have never seen any Rush Hour movies, so Chris was new to me. And I must say, he’s a riot! He should definitely be working more!]

What was up with that cut on his nose???

My much smaller bone is this: why did Bradley Cooper have a cut on the bridge of his nose the whole way through??? And it kept changing intensity! That leads me to believe the actor had the cut, not the character, and they shot the film very out of sequence. It was very distracting, with absolutely no reason for it. Were there no able make-up people on set???

Outside of all that, I enjoyed most of the film, and definitely recommend it. I haven’t seen anything else yet this season, (I hate that I missed all my many screenings, but I just haven’t had time yet,) so I have nothing to compare it to for awards purposes. I hope to catch-up in time to vote for the SAG Awards near the end of the month, and, as I do, my reviews will get published. (Well, the review-worthy ones, anyway, whether or not they’re good. The films, not my reviews, which are always good!!!)

One bit of trivia about Silver Linings Playbook: rather than Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, Mark Wahlberg and Ann Hathaway were originally cast as the leads. Thank goodness it changed, especially Ann!!! She would have positively ruined the film; her acting is always about “look at me, ” rather than just embodying the character. Whew. We all dodged a bullet on that one, especially Bradley Cooper, who would have had to act with her!