It might be worth noting that I knew little-to-nothing about
this film upon entering it. I knew Bradley Cooper was in it, it had something
to do with dance, and it was directed by David O. Russell, coming off of The Fighter, mind you. I knew so little
in fact, I kept expecting Zoe Saldana’s character to enter the film. But
apparently, she’s in a different movie called The Words, also with the serious Mr. Cooper. The point being, I had
no idea the film was about a character with mental illness, but the film itself
seems to have completely forgotten by its second half anyway. So if you’re one
of those who gets turned off by mental illness, it’s not your thing, it’s just
not cool, well then Silver Linings
Playbook is the film for you!
The film opens with Pat (Cooper) exiting from an institution
for the mentally ill and returns to live at his parents house. For a good
while, the dialogue about his situation annoyingly circumvents the “why” and
“what happened” questions. Annoying because of the transparent cat-and-mouse game
I feel pulled into that purposely denies the audience exposition. Eventually,
through a somewhat contrived therapy scene, we find out Pat has bi-polar
disorder and he was institutionalized after severely beating the man his wife
was sleeping with.
This mental illness informs Russell’s filmmaking; Pat’s mood
swings, agitation, inarticulation, and unassured positivity is captured with
claustrophobic close ups and quick cuts that mirror his inner state. I would
completely understand if people had problems with this type of filmmaking
caricaturing bi-polar disorder, I haven’t heard that as of yet, but it seems
appropriate specifically for Pat’s character.
The main conceit of the film develops once Pat becomes
closely acquainted with Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), the sister of Pat’s wife’s
best friend (sounds exhausting, I know). She’s a recent widow who’s been on a self
destructive streak and finds therapy in dance. Long story short, they can help
each other: he can be her dance partner, and she can be the concierge between
him and his wife, due to the restraining order his wife has in place.
What Silver Linings
Playbook does well in its first half, is create a world that acknowledges
mental illness with idiosyncratic verisimilitude. Most poignantly, the film
captures the uneasiness felt by friends and family who don’t quite know how to
deal with people diagnosed with things like bi-polar disorder. Adjacent to
that, we have Tiffany, who battles with depression, and Pat Sr. (Robert De
Niro) who admits to having OCD. Once again, it’s the acknowledgement of these
mental illnesses, and the seeming objective of the film to capture the ubiquity
of mental illness that draws interest in the film’s first half.
Then comes the second half. I’d say this is somewhere soon
after the pleasant montage set to Bob Dylan/Johnny Cash duet. From about there
onward, most every positive aspect the film has built is swiftly diffused. The
maverick version of David O. Russell turns into the director of The Fighter, and Silver Linings Playbook goes full-on rom-com. The witty dialogue
and tense comedy turns into farcical and physical humor. The verisimilitude
turns into complete implausibility where peripheral characters end up in scenes
out of nowhere (i.e. Chris Tucker, the policeman, and the therapist).
Perhaps most disappointingly, the film becomes completely
uninterested in mental illness. A couple mentions of medication and it seems a
non-issue for the film, as if to get all that difficult stuff out of the way so
we can enjoy regular, non-complex love. Remarkably, Cooper’s character is wiped
clean of any semblance of inner struggle and the alienation he once felt has
now disappeared with it. Of course, the counter argument will be that love
cured the illness, but that is far too simple an explanation and not one I,
personally, can accept. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t deal with understanding
and accepting mental illness in each other, instead, it feels like a garnish.
Likewise, Pat Sr.’s aforementioned obsessive-compulsive disorder ends up being
nothing more than a representation of the most superficial symptoms of the
disorder, and is equated with a mere proclivity for superstition.
The film’s climax is a dance competition where every plot of
the story collides. Russell orchestrates the scene with an impressive
Hitchcockian attention to creating suspense. It’s quite fun, but at the same
time, I found myself questioning why the film has become consumed with all of
these plots and sub-plots that finally detract completely from Pat’s mental
illness.
The story of director David O. Russell has become quite
upsetting. After a swift build up of strong films culminating with the
dexterously humorous and thought provoking Three
Kings and I Heart Huckabees, Russell’s
films have assimilated to the humdrum conventions of “Oscar bait” with the
R-Rated version of a Disney come-up story (think Invincible) in The Fighter
and now this, a romantic comedy that concerns itself superficially with bigger
issues to assist in hammering home all of its “heart.” I think it’s safe now to diagnose his career
as assuredly having jumped the shark.
