We’ll level with you, some of us around the office are complete suckers for a decent feel-good comedy with a cast of quality actors. Case in point, Silver Linings Playbook.
The film, which stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker and Julie Stiles is all about redemption.
When Bradley Cooper’s character Pat discusses how he lost it all -his sanity, his wife -you feel for him. You want him to get it together. You almost feel some primordial need jump into the movie’s universe and guide him through life’s trails, just so you’ll be sure that he’ll get there safely. He’s that friend next door who can’t catch a break. In fact, you get the distinct feeling that he’s a stand in for you or someone you know. That if just one more than had went wrong for you at a crucial moment you would be Pat. In that way, he’s a sort of surrogate for us all.
Then he meets Tiffany and for one split second, you’re close to thinking that this is just another one of those romantic comedies when a woman walks into the main character’s life and completely changes his outlook on life. It’s the easy way to end a film of this nature. It’s the singing songs about sharing ending that you’ll be familiar with if you’ve watched more than one episode of Barney and Friends. Instead Jennifer Lawrence shines as a slightly more deceptively ‘off’ character than Cooper’s.
In the end we loved the film as much for what it did do as what it didn’t. This Saturday Night we think you’ll love Silver Linings Playbook too, the film is available for rental in the Xbox Video Store for $4.99, or $12.99 if you’ve already seen it and are just looking to purchase for $12.99.
