Picture Courtesy of The Weinstein Company
Silver Linings Playbook is based off the novel The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. I have not read the novel, but after watching the movie, I’m sure it would be an interesting read. The way the movie is done, I can’t quite picture how the novel would be written.
The film stars Bradley Cooper as Pat Solitano. Solitano has bipolar disorder, and is recently released from a psychiatric hospital. The film eases you into his character before explaining why exactly he was in the hospital, only alluding to it. I imagine there are many more things explained in the book (as usual) that aren’t explained in the movie. For example, in the movie when Pat is in the hospital, he has a mayo jar. Now perhaps I zoned out for a whole 5 seconds and missed the reasoning behind this. The jar makes small appearances in the background throughout the movie, but I don’t believe it was ever explained why. Through a friend Pat is introduced to Tiffany Maxwell. Tiffany is played by Jennifer Lawrence, best known for her recent role as Katniss from the Hunger Games. Tiffany is a young widow with her own mental problems. The two butt heads due to their illnesses, but soon form an odd form of friendship.
The film focuses on these two characters, as well as the Solitano family. Pat’s father, played by Robert De Niro is a bookie for the football games, and is very superstitious. Through an odd pairing, Pat and Tiffany try to get something they each want with the help of one another, while throwing in a couple superstitious wins for Pat’s father.
Without having read the book, I only had a vague idea what the film was about from the preview. As I mentioned before there are probably a few things that I missed not having read the book, but overall it was a really good movie. I absolutely loved Jennifer Lawrence in this film and hope to see her a lot more. If you haven’t already seen this movie you definitely should check it out!
Chris Knox 