Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, and won for Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence). Playbook is a romantic-comedy at its core, but is so much more. Set in Philadelphia, the story centers around Pat (Bradley Cooper) and his family, mental illness, love for Philly sports teams, grief, and relationships. It is easily one of the best romantic comedies I have ever seen, and doesn't fall into the normal traps and conventions that the genre brings. The movie was nominated in all four acting categories, and it was definitely deserved.

Pat Solitano has just been released from a mental hospital; probably a bit too early, but at his mother's (Jacki Weaver) insistence. Pat was appointed there after nearly beating a man to death. Pat walked in on his wife (Brea Bee) cheating with another man, became unhinged, and nearly killed him. Pat had undiagnosed bi-polar disorder, something his stay at the hospital was helping him to control. Upon his return home he is greeted by his OCD father Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro), who believes that Pat is good luck for the Philadelphia Eagles. Pat is trying to turn his life around and get his wife back. He's trying to find a "silver lining" to his difficult situation. At a dinner party, Pat meets Tiffany (Lawrence), a young widow who seems to be a bit unhinged as well.

Pat struggles through his bi-polar disorder, and the audience struggles along with him. When he has an episode, the editing is such that the audience feels suffocated. You want to help Pat calm down, but the nature of his condition won't allow it. I found myself feeling uncomfortable, especially in a scene where he frantically searches for his wedding video, and inadvertently ends up striking his mother. Playbook deals with mental illness head on. His father deals with OCD, and although it seems cliche to have a father and son deal with two mental illnesses that are used all the time in movies and TV, it works. Pat Jr. suffers, and his relationship with his father is strained because of what they both have to deal with. His father knows that a part of why Pat turned out the way he did is because of him. Several scenes of attempted reconciliation between Pat and his dad are incredibly moving and sweet; in fact seeing De Niro in such a vulnerable way is an unexpected treat. Pat is almost obsessed with the idea that he and his estranged wife are going to be together, despite the fact that she was unfaithful, and the minor issue of her restraining order against Pat. Living with a mental illness is not easy, and most probably don't fully understand it. You can see Pat's mother struggle with trying to deal with her husband and son. Director David O. Russell does a great job handling these heavy subjects with humor and an unexplainable lightness, something he also did in The Fighter.

Linked with all of these family issues are the Philadelphia Eagles. In the 2000's, the Eagles were the hard luck team of the NFL, losing three NFC championship games and one Super Bowl. The film takes place in 2008, and much of it revolves around the Eagles season, including some important bets made on games. It was touching to see how much the Eagles meant to the family, especially Pat's opening monologue where he describes Sunday as his favorite day of the week. As a major Arkansas Razorback fan, I've always felt that Arkansas' sports have brought my family together time and time again, and do the same for so many other families, as evidenced in Playbook.

Tiffany and Pat are both a mess. Tiffany has dealt with her grief through meaningless sexual encounters, and is trapped by her reputation as a "whore". But when Tiffany meets Pat, she sees him as someone like her. Someone that will be honest and not try to cover up feelings or inadequacies. Tiffany embraces her shortcomings and how she is messed up, and she likes Pat because he is trying to do the same. Tiffany promises Pat that she will help him get close to Nikki in exchange for help with a dance competition. This sounds a little bit dumb but it works. The dancing scenes are fun, and you can see the cathartic value it has for both. When Pat is with Tiffany, his episodes are less. He feels freer and so does the audience. The banter between these two is funny and real, and you can feel their connection. You can see the outcome from a mile away, but it's done in a way that make the ending feel satisfying, and not cheesy.

Jennifer Lawrence won Best Actress for her performance, and I can easily see why. Her character is headstrong and stubborn, but Lawrence plays it so that you can always see her vulnerability right under the surface. Lawrence is quickly rising to super-stardom in Hollywood, now with an Oscar and an extremely bankable franchise, The Hunger Games, in tow. Lawrence is beautiful, but not in a Scarlett Johansson or Mila Kunis type way; she seems like the kind of person you could actually meet in real life an talk to. Her performance is impressive, especially since she is significantly younger than all of her co-stars. In fact, she is almost 15 years younger than Cooper, her on-screen love interest. It's not as weird as say, Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel in Yes Man (where Zooey clearly looks much younger than Carrey, an 18 year difference), but that is because Cooper's short haircut and scruffy beard just make him look younger. Cooper does a fine job playing totally against type. Normally he's the charming jerk (The Hangover, The A-Team), but here he's an extremely wounded, sweet guy with a crazy streak.

Playbook has a great soundtrack, wonderfully incorporating rock songs into the film, including one by Led Zeppelin. A great soundtrack and how it's integrated can be vital to a film's success. A song can totally make a good scene into a great scene. Stealer's Wheel's "Stuck in the Middle With You" is forever linked to the ear-cutting scene in Reservoir Dogs. The outro to "Layla" by Derek and The Dominoes is perfect for the scene in Goodfellas where basically everyone gets whacked. "Hero" by Regina Spektor is always a haunting reminder of the "expectations vs. reality" scene in (500) Days of Summer. These are just a few examples of how a great song choice can raise a scene's impact. Currently the Academy gives out awards for Best Original Song and Best Original Score, but I would suggest that they add a "Best Soundtrack" statue that would go to the best use of popular music in a film.

Silver Linings Playbook is a complex movie with a romantic center. It has tendencies of a serious drama and also a romantic comedy. I was very impressed by this movie, further evidencing how strong of a year 2012 was. It's a shame it took me this long to see it!

4/5

Jack Reacher

Let me get this out of the way: I think that Tom Cruise is one of the best actors in Hollywood. My criteria for "best" being, "are they in good movies and do they do a good job in said movies?" Cruise absolutely fits this bill. Just take a look at his movies over the last ten years:

Jack Reacher
Rock of Ages 
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Knight and Day
Valkyrie
Tropic Thunder
Lions for Lambs
Mission Impossible III
War of the Worlds
Collateral
The Last Samurai
Minority Report

I haven't seen Lions for Lambs or Rock of Ages, but all the rest of those are good to great (especially Minority Report and Collateral). He's done comedy, action, and drama, and has been consistently good in all of it. I don't think anyone will refute the fact that personally he's a total nutbar, but professionally, he's one of the best in the business.

Going into Jack Reacher I expected a charismatic performance from Cruise, some good action, and a serviceable plot. That is exactly what I got. Reacher is based off of the Lee Child book series about former military policeman Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise). Reacher is called in after a mass murder suspect asks for him by name during his interrogation. From his time in the service, Reacher knows this man to be a killer who has gotten away with murder, and wants to see him brought to justice. He reluctantly agrees to help the defense attorney (Rosamund Pike) investigate the matter, and starts to uncover the pieces of what actually happened.

Reacher is kind of your basic conspiracy movie. The plot moves along almost like an episode of Law and Order. The opening set of murders is shown, Reacher comes in to investigate, and there are some good twists and turns. If you're looking for a great police investigation movie like Se7en, then this movie will do nothing for you. Some of the twists were surprising, I just found myself not caring that much about them.

Where Reacher separates itself is, you guessed it, through Tom Cruise. He's the coolest and most confident person on screen every time he shows up. He's one step ahead of pretty much everyone; he's smarter, stronger, and more capable than any adversary. If this were any other actor besides Tom Cruise, I'd be put off by his superhero like ability. Actually, he's better than a superhero because superheros at least have one weakness. Reacher basically has no blind spots except for the fact that he's a minor hot head. Otherwise he does whatever he needs to and being a drifter who is "off the grid" in the first place, he has no real consequences except for death, which you never really feel is a threat. Cruise makes Reacher interesting because he's Tom Cruise. If you're a fan of his on-screen persona, you'll love it. If not, I'm guessing you will be less impressed.

Jack Reacher is a run of the mill action movie with an extremely charismatic lead actor. Much like Knight and Day, which was similar in its overall mediocrity, you will love or hate Jack Reacher based on how you feel about Tom Cruise. Personally, I love Cruise, and thought Reacher wasn't half bad.

3/5