Silver Linings Playbook

"This is what I believe to be true: you have to do everything you can, and if you stay positive, you have a shot at a silver lining."

“Silver Linings Playbook” follows Pat (Bradley Cooper), who, after being released from an 8-month mental hospital hold, tries to reconstruct both his life and marriage; though, this becomes increasingly difficult when Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) steps into the fold.

“Silver Linings Playbook” is one of the most explicitly honest films I have ever seen.

Both its shots and emotions ring incredibly true, which is especially honest during Pat’s outburst scenes. While it doesn’t fully and completely show what it’s like to go through some of the conditions the characters go through (OCD, bipolar, personality disorder), it does a darn well job of trying to.

But how does it manage to do this?

Well, for one, the screenplay is fantastic: it is both simultaneously quotable and likable, well thought out and extravagant. The characters themselves are particularly striking: they’re just written that well. From almost the instant we see Pat, the audience gets a sense of who he is, how he deals with it, and the general mood of his life.

That is, I’m not attempting to exclude Jennifer Lawrence’s character; her performance was just as real and compelling as the rest.

This film knows what it wants to convey, and it does exactly that.

8.5/10- Simultaneously hard to sit through and likable, “Silver Linings Playbook” is honest in every which way.