Well, here it is: This is the last review for Best Picture nominations, including animated. Funny enough, this was the first of the nine Best Picture nominations that I saw. I saw it with my family in theatres on Christmas day and I was lucky enough to see it again yesterday. This was also a film that I was excited to see when I saw the first promotional screen-capture in Entertainment Weekly. Seeing Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence together in a romantic comedy, written and directed by David O. Russell (The Fighter, I Heart Huckabees.. and he was an executive producer of Anchorman, I didn’t know that), I just knew I had to see it.
I say romantic comedy because that was my first thought when I heard about it. But it is actually more dramatic with some light moments, and indeed some funny ones. Cooper and Lawrence have great chemistry together on the screen as they both play young people with some traumatic experiences they are both going through in their own ways. Cooper plays Pat, a former high school teacher that just got out of a mental health institution and in the beginning of the movie you find out why. He meets Tiffany, a girl with her own problems. Like I said, they have great chemistry, and I was hooked from the first time they were on screen together.
Silver Linings Playbook is the only Best Picture nomination to have nominations in each of the four acting categories. When I started watching good movies at my brother Phil’s recommendation, I always paid attention to how good the acting could be. I am one of the people who is sometimes drawn to a movie just because of the actors in them. I think that is why I loved Sllver Linings Playbook so much. Cooper and Lawrence, like I said, have two very interesting characters and the amount of work that undoubtedly went into them is mind-boggling. Robert DeNiro and Jacki Weaver as Pat’s parents were both very good too, showing how hard it can be for parents when their son is suffering from bipolar episodes and lashes out sometimes.
All in all, there are some intense moments, including one of the best climaxes I have seen in a long time in the form of a dance, and such a great ending too that I of course will not spoil. In terms of the Best Picture nominations, I think I recommend this one the most. While Argo and Zero Dark Thirty may appeal to most, I recommend Silver Linings because how else could you see a romantic comedy-drama done so damn well?
Michael Night's Miscellany 