Dir. David O. Russell (2012)
Rated R Silver Linings Playbook is about a man named Pat, who after catching his wife cheating on him and suffering from a mental breakdown landing him in a mental institution, tries to build his life back up again. He has just been released from the hospital, and is now living at home with his parents. He is still not in great shape; he is constantly thinking about his ex-wife Nikki and ways to better himself to win her back. He reads her assigned summer teaching books and violates the restraining order she has against him to ask around about her. She is all he thinks about. He is still traumatized from catching Nikki cheating on him with her co-worker, and the incident sometimes replays in his head and causes him to have violent outbursts. He means well, but he is still causing his parents a lot of trouble and one night even gets in a screaming fight with them that ends with him and his father in a violent fight. This all changes when he meets Tiffany, his best friend Ronnie's wife's younger sister who has just gone through a traumatic experience as well. She is a recent widow after her husband was hit by a car and killed, and she is also in a very unfortunate situation. Pat and Tiffany's relationship is rocky at first, since all Pat can think about is his ex-wife and also has no filter on what he says. He constantly offends Tiffany and brings up her dead husband. He also tries to justify that he is not as mentally ill as Tiffany, and he comes up with as many excuses as he can as to why she is crazy and he is normal. They are too alike to get along. Their relationship changes when Tiffany agrees to send a letter to Nikki from Pat, though this would break the law and violate the restraining order. Her condition is that Pat must do something for her in return, so she makes him enter a dance competition with her. All while this is happening, Pat is struggling to keep a good relationship with his parents, who don't want him to have anything to do with Tiffany or Nikki and just want him to spend time with them and bond over watching their favorite team, the Eagles, play football. A couple days before the competition, Tiffany tells Pat that Nikki has written Pat a letter back. In the letter, Nikki tells Pat that she is glad he contacted her and is happy that he is doing better. However, she wants to keep the restraining order until she feels safe and thinks it is better that they live out their lives separated. Pat is heartbroken, and needs his space away from Tiffany. When he returns home, his father is having a meltdown because the Eagles have lost, causing him to lose a bet between him and a neighbor, and he blames it all on his son not being there. This sends Pat over the edge, and he quits the competition. After the bet is lost, Pat's dad and neighbor decide to make a double or nothing bet for a chance for Pat to win his money back. They decide to make a parlay, and that if the Eagles win their next game as well as Pat and Tiffany get at least a score of 5 on the competition, Pat's father will win his money back. Knowing that there is almost no chance Pat will do the competition now, Tiffany and his father persuade him to do it by lying and saying that Nikki will be there. At the competition, Pat is so excited to see Nikki, but what Tiffany does not know is that Pat has figured out that the letter from Nikki was actually written by Tiffany. He doesn't say anything to her, so when Nikki actually shows up at the competition, Tiffany has a panic attack. Pat drags her on stage and they do their dance, earning an average score of 5. The Eagles also won the game, so Pat's father wins double his money. After, Pat walks right up to Nikki and they have a long conversation. Tiffany runs out of the building, thinking that he is talking to Nikki about the letter. Then, Pat is seen running after Tiffany. He gives her a letter saying he knew it was her who wrote the letter all along, and he tells her that he loves her. The movie ends with Pat and Tiffany watching an Eagles game with Pat's family, happy and in love. I loved this movie. It's my second time watching it, the first time being around two years ago, so it was good to get a reminder of how good this movie is. I know a lot of people talk highly about this movie and it can seem kind of overrated, but I think it is talked about so highly rightfully. It is a romantic (somewhat) comedy, but the characters and situation is so flawed and twisted. It shows two people who are really struggling in life end up in a good situation. I loved how their relationship was so complicated and imperfect. It was completely unromantic until the very end. Though there are other movies that do a lot better job of depicting mental illness, I feel that this movie does justice to a lot of aspects of mental illness. It doesn't go fully in depth, but it does a good job in my opinion of depicting how hard it can be to have stable and healthy relationships when you are suffering from illnesses such as BPD like Pat is. My favorite scene in the movie is outside the movie theatre when Pat and Tiffany are fighting, and Pat starts hearing the wedding song in his head. The camera starts spinning and the background blurs, and the song is the only thing Pat can hear while everyone is shouting around him. It shows how Pat is still controlled by the experience with his ex-wife and how the song still controls him. It is not the only instance in the film where Pat has a breakdown from just hearing the song alone. I also love the outcome of the film, because Tiffany and Pat are both such flawed characters and they can heal together from the experiences they have had. This movie is eye opening and heartwarming, and I recommend it highly.
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AuthorCasey Land Archives
January 2018
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