Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

People are voting emotionally.

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I love this movie. It is one of my favorites and I have seen it so many times, I can't count anymore. Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence portray people with mental illness and stress so well. They have great chemistry and they're both nice to look at too! haha. I can't get enough of this movie! Not really a family-friendly movie, but definitely worth a watch for adults! I would recommend to everyone :D

First of all, this movie is really awesome, the acting of both main lead (Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper) is amazing, the directing, the music everything about the movie is fantastic, especially the story, where do i begin, it's a story about a guy(Pat) that just out from mental hospital, after almost killed the man that cheated with his wife. He than met with a girl(Tiffany) that is going to help him contacting his wife, because he wants to be back with her, after that Pat and Tiffany became friends and help each other out. In this movie we can see how Pat starts to deal with his issues by meeting Tiffany and hanging out with her. I just think that this movie is super amazing, do not read the review that say this movie is really bad, they said there is no message in this movie, well you just stupid, if you say that.... Just watch this movie and you will see how amazing this movie is...(i can say it hundreds of times).... I rated it 10/10 and sorry about my bad english....

Let me begin by saying that I absolutely adore Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. I really do believe that everyone involved in the making of this film portrayed the characters of this story as likable, captivating, and clearly unique from the typical romantic comedy characters. However, as you are hopefully beginning to realize, this does not mean that Silver Linings Playbook is a flawless depiction of individuals with mental illness. It's got a lot of issues, some more problematic than others. The film begins when Bradley Cooper's character, Pat, is released from a mental health facility and brought to live in his childhood home with his parents. Soon after his return, he meets Tiffany, a young woman struggling with an unnamed mental illness of her own, exacerbated by the tragic death of her husband. After a few comedic encounters, Tiffany convinces Pat to compete with her in a couples dance competition in exchange for her delivering a letter to Pat's estranged wife, Nikki. (The whole reason Pat ended up in the mental health facility is because he nearly beat a man to death after coming home to find him in the shower with Nikki. Following this episode, Pat is diagnosed with bipolar disorder.)I want to like the idea of these heavy subjects being dealt with in the context of a romantic comedy. However, the scenes in which Pat experiences manic episodes are disrespectfully comedic. The audience shouldn't feel the urge to laugh at a character's bipolar episode. So, there's problem number one. Then, there's the small fact that one of Pat's episodes is purposely caused by his own therapist! I was really rooting for Dr. Patel. He's a funny, Philadelphia Eagles-loving guy, but what kind of therapist purposely plays a song in the waiting room that is a trigger for his new patient?! While this leads to a breakdown that is very familiar to individuals who struggle with similar illnesses, it is a seriously concerning depiction of a mental health professional. (Later, he throws away any hope of regaining professionalism and gets drunk with Pat at a Philadelphia Eagles game...come on, Dr. Patel. Enough.)Some critics have complained that Pat's bipolar disorder is only represented in the form of manic episodes, while depressive episodes are noticeably absent from the story. Considering that some individuals with bipolar disorder experience very few depressive episodes throughout their lifetime, I find no issue with this. The movie takes place over the span of only a few months; it is perfectly reasonable that Pat does not experience a depressive episode during this time. It would be unfair to expect a single film to portray every aspect of a complicated illness that manifests itself differently in every individual.That said, this film sends a clear message that I find decidedly troubling. As Pat falls in love with Tiffany, many of the symptoms of his bipolar disorder magically disappear. She is able to remove the triggering effects of his wedding song by just whispering a few words of comfort. She somehow counteracts his obsession with Nikki to the extent that he doesn't even care that she lied about the whole letter-writing charade. The audience has no reason to believe that he suddenly started taking his medications, considering he even avoided taking them at the mental health facility. Yet somehow, his symptoms seem to disappear. While there is certainly research to support the idea that being in love improves symptoms of some mental illnesses, this film takes it a bit too far. Love can not cure Pat's bipolar disorder or Tiffany's depression. In order to fit the typical mold of the romantic comedy, Pat's very serious mental illness is trivialized. The end of the film suggests that his struggles have magically disappeared purely because Tiffany loves him. It sounds too good to be true, and it is.Perhaps unintentionally, this film supports the narrative that mental illness can be fixed by an improvement of external circumstances. While external factors absolutely play a role in the manifestation of mental illness, a single change in relationship status is not a mystical cure-all. We can celebrate all of the things that Silver Linings Playbook does well, but it's still far from ideal.

Being that this movie's main focus being mental disorder and that it's Hollywood, I really didn't expect anything special but this movie is really a diamond in a bunch of coal. I have dealt with emotional disorders such as portrayed in this film and its representation is very accurate. Just as the movie plot goes, therapy only goes so far and you have to come to a point where other people help you out. My uncle was bipolar just like Pat in the movie and how Pat turns to others for help is the same way my uncle did. The acting was awesome, the cast choice was perfect, the plot was exciting, and was very Oscar worthy. One of the best films I've seen in years for sure.