Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence strike romantic sparks in 'Silver Linings Playbook'
Jennifer Lawrence is remarkable in a role that's demanding in its range.
Jennifer Lawrence is remarkable in a role that's demanding in its range.
Bradley Cooper鈥檚 Pat in writer-director David O. Russell鈥檚 鈥淪ilver Linings Playbook鈥� is a bipolar cuckolded former schoolteacher in suburban Philadelphia who has recently emerged from eight months in a mental institution. He was put there after beating up the beau of the wife he believes still loves him and wants to win back (despite her restraining order). Living with his uneasily protective parents (well played by Jacki Weaver and Robert De Niro), the hyperjumpy Pat tries to pound himself into shape in order to rescue a marriage he is too delusional to see is over.
Fortunately, both for Pat and for the movie, Jennifer Lawrence鈥檚 tough-talking neighbor Tiffany, a recent widow with her own share of mental baggage, is on hand to salvage the situation. She dragoons Pat into rehearsing as her partner for an upcoming local dance competition. We can see what he can鈥檛: Tiffany, and not his wife, is his true soul mate.
Russell directs the movie almost as if Pat were behind the camera; the visual rhythms are manic and short-fused. In every other way, this neo-鈥淒avid and Lisa鈥� sugarcoats the sufferings of these people in order to boost a sentimental wrap-up that鈥檚 right out of 鈥淒ancing With the Stars.鈥� It鈥檚 slick stuff, but Lawrence, in her most high-low, sad-comic turn yet, is remarkable. Grade: B (Rated R for language and some sexual content/nudity.)