OVP: Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Film: Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Stars: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert de Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker
Director: David O. Russell
Oscar History: 8 nominations/1 win (Best Picture, Director, Actor-Bradley Cooper, Actress-Jennifer Lawrence*, Supporting Actor-Robert de Niro, Supporting Actress-Jacki Weaver, Editing, Adapted Screenplay)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

It seems odd that we're in a place now that David O. Russell's films are instantly and universally embraced upon release, when just a few years back his films brought out a sort of critical polarization that few directors can achieve (ask any film connoisseur their opinion of I Heart Huckabees and I'm guessing you're in for a long conversation).  And yet, that seems to be what The Fighter, a film that has some of Russell's touches but is largely a feel-good, come-from-behind Rocky sort of tale, has wrought.

(Spoilers throughout, and I review right up until the end of the movie, so if you plan on seeing the movie, hit the bookmark button and return to discuss later) The film tells the tale of Pat (Cooper), a man who has suffered his entire life from bipolar disorder, and is being released on a probationary status from a Baltimore mental institution to live which his parents, Pat Sr. (de Niro) and Dolores (Weaver), provided he takes his medication and goes to therapy.  The film stays very uncomfortable in the first half of the film, a tension you could feel in a packed movie theater (I often kibbitz about going to a movie theater on opening night, but there's definitely a sensory thing that happens when there are literally no seats in the theater, and with an Oscar-y film like this, you generally get an audience of people who turn off their cell phones and don't whisper the entire film about what is happening).  As an audience, we are in the same sort of seats that Pat Sr. and Dolores are in-we don't know what will cause Pat to fall into an angry pit of despair or a rocket of euphoria.  It's an interesting look at a disease that people generally tend to shy away from talking about (probably because we all know someone with it, and our natural predisposition as a culture is to not talk about our own "dirty laundry," no matter how healthy that may be), and I found the entire construct intriguing.

Of course, being that we're in a movie theater, there must be a girl that Cooper meets, and he does in the beautiful Tiffany, played with a tenacious flare by Jennifer Lawrence.  Lawrence, who of course also plays Katniss Everdeen and won an Oscar nomination two years ago for Winter's Bone, exhibits a side to herself here that we haven't seen before, at least as an audience member.  Gone is the dour woman on display in those two films, and instead we get another woman suffering from mental illness and the recent death of her husband as well as the loss of her job, and yet we also get a woman who can charm and swerve her way through a joke or a conversation.  This skill shouldn't be a shock to anyone who has seen Lawrence work a talk show couch (she's got pizzazz, that one), but it's so welcome to see it onscreen, and the way that Lawrence tackles each scene, each scene partner, is an absolute stunner.  Later on in the film, you see her take on Robert de Niro in a scene, and its almost as if the man who mesmerized the entire 1970's and 1980's has come alive in a way we didn't think he could anymore-a prizefighter who finally found a new challenger to take on, a worthy scene partner adversary.  Gone is the "winking" nod to his past work, and instead we are treated to a new treat in his film oeuvre, a man obsessed with superstitions and a gambling addiction, ravaged by OCD but still fully functional.  For those of who have carried the de Niro torch for many a moon, we have to thank Lawrence-this is the Great One's best performance in over twenty years.

So, Lawrence is mesmerizing, Bob is back, and the film is crackling at an alarmingly brisk pace, and though I haven't mentioned it before, Bradley Cooper is also superb (though, even in his bipolar state, it seems damn near impossible to me that anyone could cheat on a man that good-looking, which for the record is the basis for his initial flip-out and placement in a mental institution-his eyes are far too blue and his cheshire grin far too magnetic, but I'll suspend reality on that one).  Where is the "but?"  You know there's one coming-there's only four stars up there for this excellent, but problematic movie.

And the "but" is this-the ending, though also well-made, is an ending for a different movie.  The film, which wants to tell the story in its first half of how difficult, what a constant struggle mental illness can be for people, doesn't follow-through by showing a steep hill to climb.  The film hits some of its most mesmerizing moments when we see a beautifully put-together montage of the two of them dancing together, with one of the best duets ever recorded playing in the background ("Girl from the North Country," sung with the heartbreak only Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan can convey).  This should be the happy peak of the film-a braver filmmaker would have had the guts to not end the film happily, and instead leave this beautiful scene as the moment of happiness these two people get.  The film's message about the difficulties about mental illness in its first half seem to show that a happy ending is not something that can just be solved with the love of a good woman/man, but is something more than just a run of bad luck.  It's a lifelong battle, and the film's departure to the world of When Harry Met Sally seems so completely out-of-place.  It's still touching, as you've spent an hour or so with these characters at this point and you've fallen in love with them (the dancing montage wouldn't work if you hadn't, and it works-one of the most tear-inducing scenes of the year), and want what's best for them, but the more distance you gain from it, you realize that the ending has no business being in this film.  The dance-off (so damn funny), the happy family photo of the final scene-it's a lovely thought, but it's not where a truly great film, which Russell is clearly intent on making, needs to go to gain that greatness.  A truly great film knows when it's time to break the audience's heart, and Pat Jr. falling back into old patterns and losing Tiffany, unfortunately seems to be the truest ending to the movie.  I know this is based on a book that I haven't read (so I don't know if the book ends with them together), but I will say that the film needs the bitter melancholy of that Cash/Dylan duet to end as well as it starts, and because it doesn't, it falls just short of its masterpiece designation.

But don't let that bitter note be where I end this conversation-I'm certain that a film this complicated and emotional triggered some great reactions from you, so share them in the comments.  And if you're debating whether to see the film, make sure to do so-the three leads are all worthy, and there are too many good moments and scenes to miss what is surely going to be one of the signature movies of 2012.