Silver Linings Playbook Review

                In this film I was expecting a love story kind of based on: you’re crazy, I’m crazy, and so we can be crazy together.  Although at the end I realized it did have some of the characteristics but that was not the overall meaning of the film.  It was about two people whose families were still heavily supporting them because of past actions and their trials of discovering who they really have become.  Pat (Bradley Cooper) was sent to a mental hospital for almost killing the man who was sleeping with his wife.  During the scene that shows Pat coming home to this devastating event you can see he shows very little hesitance in beating this man senseless.  This I believe is the reason why he was sent to the hospital because he could not look past his anger at the moment to see how this could affect his life later on.

                Tiffany on the other hand whom we do not meet until after Pat has been released also suffers from some kind of mental illness.  When we are introduced to Tiffany at a dinner party thrown by her sister, we find out shortly after that she is a widow.  Her husband’s death caused her to feel emptiness which leads her to sleeping with dozens of people.   There is one scene when I could truly see the beginning of relationship between Tiffany and Pat, it when is they are talking about the type of medicine each of them take.  It was the first real thing that both of them wanted to talk about.  Before that Pat was kind of avoiding her because all night he wanted to talk about was his wife that he was trying to win back.  This was another ongoing point, his attempts to bring back the feeling of love that his wife used to have for him that she lost the day he came home to her cheating.

                Pat’s violent outburst is not a surprise once we learn that his father, Pat Sr. (Robert DeNiro) too has been known to get in fights at Philadelphia Eagles games.  His father is actually banned from Lincoln Financial Field (Eagles stadium) because he fought too much.  Pat Sr. develops obsessive compulsive disorder anytime time the Eagles game is on TV. He has Pat Jr. hold the remotes a certain way, his wife Dolores (Jacki Weaver) cook the same meal every Sunday, and he records every single game. 

My favorite scene in the whole film was when one morning Pat Jr. was sleeping and Pat Sr. comes walking up the stairs and enters his son’s room.  Pat Sr. begins to rub Pat Jr. awake and then whispers “son, this is very important, I need to talk to you” and Pat Jr. begins come to and asks “what’s going on?”  Then Pat Sr. says “The Eagles game is about to start and I need you downstairs to hold each of the remotes.” This was my favorite scene because it shows how much the Philadelphia Eagles truly mean to Pat Sr. and it makes his son feel as if nothing is wrong and everything is just going on as usual.  It helps Pat Jr. take his mind of his wife and Tiffany for a brief period of time.

As the film progresses Pat Jr. and Tiffany start spending more time together and the relationship develops steadily.  Pat Jr. does not realize how much he likes Tiffany because he is still madly in love with his wife.  He cannot see that Tiffany actually cares deeply for him.  Towards the conclusion of the film Pat is realizing how much he actually loves Tiffany until he sees his wife again and he must choose between the two women. To him, being with Tiffany represents accepting who he has become and being with his wife represents the person he used to be.  Overall I would say this movie is a must see and would give it a 9.5/10. Thank you for reading.

-Harry McPhaul