Silver Linings Playbook

Wow, what a great movie!!! Just about everything in this movie is superior. Silver Linings Playbook is a screwball romantic comedy steeped in a drama based on bipolar disorder, depression, OCD, Philadelphia Eagles fanatics, a ballroom dancing contest, adultery, Hemingway, and a lead character who jogs while wearing a trash bag. Can a movie be bad if it stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Robert De Niro?

Silver Linings Playbook follows Tiffany (Lawrence) and Pat (Cooper), both damaged human beings. Pat is a bipolar teacher just out of eight months in a state psychiatric institution. Tiffany is a young widow, over compensating for the death of her cop husband by having sex with all of her coworkers. They're manic energy is unleashed when they come together. This is what drives this movie.

The soundtrack is exceptional. It is unique and varied, with each song serving an exact purpose. Especially keen are Stevie Wonder's My Cherie Amour, Led Zeppelin's What is and What Should Be, and The Girl from the North Country a Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash duet. When the music strikes a harmony with the scene, the movie is all the stronger. Rarely do we get to see the perfect storm of script, direction, acting, music and relevance.

I highly recommend this movie.