I think this film comes from the wool carpet laying on the bottom of David O'Russell's heart, the director. Somehow he, as a father of a bi-polar son in real life, I assume may be the semi-bi-polar father by De Niro in the film, trying so hard to "make sense"/normalize his son by throwing his very own way of thinking directly at him, wishing he could just swallow it and become healthy again like taking medicines, effective swiftly and immediately played . He, personally, must have experienced that phrase, yelling desperately to have his ill son make sense to him until he ends up tired. It is those little threads whistling in the film that inspire me of the conclusion above.
I love the scene where Tiffany made a dramatic scene on the street with Pat after storming out of the diner having been pissed by Pat's accusation of her sluttishness. At that moment, among the noise and finger-pointers, she came to him and amazingly tuned down the provocative song in his mind to a stop. SHE JUST MAKES SO MUCH SENSE TO HIM, and that's amazing. Who are we that define what is normal or what is not? And how do we do that, by quantity? Like 10 of us here, if one behaves differently from the rest 9, that makes him/her abnormal? Have you ever wondered if there's something wrong with yourself that makes you impossible to fit in a certain group or circumstance? If yes, that scene might be your scenario, but do believe there's a Tiffany in there or elsewhere hanging as well.
Truth be told, I've been dying to see this film for months ever since a bird sending good words about it from the Cannes film festival where it was debuted to the world. So, as you may have guessed following the trend, it turns out not as high as my damn expectations. Those hilarious parts have mostly been revealed in trailers, and the storyline as a whole doesn't really give me much a vibe-I was looking, staring, ready to be amazed yet I was also wondering the whole time, not being turned on most of the time. In other words, I was not as excited. BUT, tears were coming down spontaneously towards he end and it's warm-hearted.
Performance, by the two leading actors but not limited to, is really great, for sure being the brightest lining of this film. I'd say Bradley Cooper surprises me even more since he's always been in my mind the pothead who looks incredibly good. God, he still looks good consistently in this film but managed to convince me of the role with his performance. Jennifer Lawrence, known for her exceptional beyond-age maturity, has claimed her name again in the battle confronting the veteran De Niro. So, in my assumption, this Silver Linings Playbook would pin down most of its nominations into awards in the performance categories just like its predecessor The Fighter yet without the Best Picture trophy. Genuinely, I'd give it a 3.5 rating based entirely on the output but rounded it up to 4 given to my own hard work in expecting to see it so long.
Among the Best Picture nominees of the Academy Awards I've personally checked so far, 5 titles (Life of Pi, Amour, Argo, Djangle Unchained, and Silver Linings Playbook) with another 4 to complete the list (Lincoln, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Zero Dark Thirty, and Les Miserables), I'd go between Life of Pi and Argo, the later of which is a sophisticated and surprisingly funny thriller that reaches up to my contentment. I'd lean onto Pi a bit more given specially the spiritual reason, but I bet the academy would chop it down for as traditions they just simply hate high-tech package (references are Avatar and Inception).
Anyway, to Jennifer Lawrence, good luck to your second nominations in the Academy and hopefully a much-deserved Oscar.
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