Dysfunction is the name of the game in David O. Russell’s most recent Oscar nominated film Silver Linings Playbook. While the dysfunction is obvious in some characters, it takes some characters longer to prove how “crazy” they really are. Nominated for eight Oscars, including a nomination in every one of the big seven categories, Silver Linings Playbook is a darkly comedic masterpiece.
Opening in a mental hospital, the film shows glimpses of main character Pat Solitano’s (Bradley Cooper) final days just before his release. Picked up by his mother Dolores Solitano (Jacki Weaver) Pat is taken home to live with his parents in Philadelphia. Greeted by his father Pat Solitano Sr. (Robert De Niro) it becomes clear that Pat and his father have a strained relationship. It appears to be due to Pat and his problems but as the film progresses we come to realize that his father, an obsessive compulsive book maker, has problems of his own. Released from the hospital with a bipolar disorder and anger issues, Pat becomes dead set on seeing his wife which is impossible. After the tragic incident that landed Pat in the hospital, his wife took a restraining order out against him. Pat desperately tries to contact his wife through his friend Ronnie (John Ortiz) and his wife Veronica (Julia Stiles) who are friends with Pat’s wife. It is with them that he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence).
A young woman who is just as damaged as Pat, the two strike up an odd friendship. After being widowed at an extremely young ate, Tiffany becomes a depressed, non-trusting sarcastic person. Coping with her lose by sleeping with strangers, Tiffany starts down a bad path with a number of men treating her as an object. When Tiffany and Pat first meet, their relationship grows out of necessity. Pat is hoping that Tiffany will bring a note to his wife while Tiffany needs a dance partner in an upcoming competition. The two spend time together, eventually realizing that they are not only good for one another mentally but that they care about each other.
Brilliantly written and directed by David O. Russell, this film highlighted the struggles of living with a mental illness. We watch family and friends that clearly love each other very much struggle to express themselves and understand each other. Tiffany and Pat once reference matching each other’s crazy, an odd way of saying that they are starting to understand each other. In a stroke of pure brilliance, O. Russell uses the camera to try and get the audience to understand what the characters are going through. It’s as if he made the camera bipolar. Mirroring the mood swings of the characters, the camera jumps from manic to depressed. Sometimes it can’t focus on just one thing, panning around a room while a character is talking rather than focusing on the speaker. At other times there is chaos but the camera can only focus on one thing, be it anything from a person’s face to a building. The camera stays tight on that one thing in a POV close-up. The camera, like the main characters, has mood swings and some times has trouble focusing on what’s important. Normally this would not work but for this film it was a brilliantly creative move.
Earlier I mentioned that the film was nominated for the big seven Oscar categories which are Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing, Best Actor (Bradley Cooper), Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence), Best Supporting Actor (Robert De Niro) and Best Supporting Actress (Jacki Weaver). Cooper and Lawrence both deserve their nominations and possibly both deserve to win. Cooper will have a harder time than Lawrence, who won the Golden Globe for her performance, going up against heavy hitters like Daniel Day Lewis and Denzel Washington. De Niro also deserves his nomination for the whole film but specifically for a tear-jerking speech he gives to Pat. As of right now I would give David O. Russell the Oscar for Best Director and don’t see me changing my mind in the near future. I give this film a 10 out of 10. It certainly has the stuff to win Best Picture but in a year of amazing films, Silver Linings Playbook will have to fight for its win.