For most people, the term “Christmas
movie” brings to mind It’s a Wonderful
Life, Elf, A Christmas Story – movies featuring Santa Claus and sentimental
speeches about childhood. For me, though, nothing captures the holiday spirit
more exquisitely than Silver Linings
Playbook, David O. Russell’s quirky 2012 romance starring Bradley Cooper
and Jennifer Lawrence.
Silver
Linings Playbook is about a man struggling to manage his bipolar disorder
and make amends after a violent incident involving his estranged wife’s lover.
His love interest is a young widow dealing with her own depression. Needless to
say, that doesn’t exactly scream hilarity, much less holiday cheer or family
entertainment (for the record, it’s rated-R, mostly thanks to a healthy dose of
profanity). Yet with his sharp script and naturalistic direction, Russell
manages to spin the material, which seems ripe for Lifetime-style melodrama,
into something genuinely fresh, heartwarming and, above all, fun.
Like The Fighter and American
Hustle, the director’s other efforts since his surprising return to the
spotlight, Silver Linings Playbook
simmers with spontaneous, almost manic energy. Characters talk loudly and
constantly, their voices often competing with each other in a barrage of noise.
It should be overwhelming, like a dinner party perpetually on the verge of
going sour, but instead, it makes the movie feel thrillingly, uniquely alive. The
actors, from supporting players Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver to Cooper and
Lawrence, slip into this atmosphere of barely contained chaos with ease, and
it’s a delight to watch them interact, whether exchanging rapid-fire banter or
tearful confessions. They lend welcome restraint and authenticity to characters
that could have easily been reduced to exasperating caricatures.
This nuance, this sensitivity, is
what made me fall in love with Silver
Linings Playbook and why it feels so special, despite its rather
conventional premise. Even now, I’ve seen few movies explore mental illness
with such honesty and compassion. After enduring so many portrayals of the
mentally ill as disposable punchlines, tortured geniuses, childlike saints and
violent psychopaths, it’s reassuring to see them treated simply as people, full
of complexities, hopes and anxieties. Even at its most incisive (i.e. the
hilariously awkward scene when Pat and Tiffany first meet), the humor never strays
into mean-spirited territory; it pokes fun without judging. Here, mental
illness isn’t something to be cured or overcome. It isn’t magically “fixed” by
true love. It comes with challenges, but the characters aren’t constantly
miserable or suffering. Rather, it’s something they learn to live with, a
fundamental aspect of their identities. As Tiffany says, “There will always be
a part of me that is dirty and sloppy, but I like that, just like I like all
the other parts of myself.”
But they aren’t defined by their
neuroses either. As in his previous work, Russell exhibits a keen awareness of
human foibles and family dynamics, expertly conveying the mixture of love, bottled-up
resentment and obligation that comes with being bound inextricably to a group
of people for your entire life. For all their dysfunction, there’s never any
doubt that the Solatanos belong together. At the end of the day, they, like
everyone else, are just trying to do the best they can to get by.
In his
review, Roger Ebert described “Silver Linings Playbook” as “a terrific old
classic.” Indeed, the film has a kind of wit and carefree charm rarely seen
nowadays, when the word “love” is generally accompanied by a scoff and eye-roll,
and smug irony represents the height of comedy. I suppose that’s really why I
associate it with the holiday season: the refreshing, even bold, lack of
cynicism when it comes to romance and redemption; the tone of heartfelt
exuberance tinged with just enough nostalgic melancholy; the soulful cadence of Frank Sinatra’s “Have Yourself
a Merry Little Christmas,” my absolute favorite Christmas song; the image of an
empty, snow-covered street bathed in colored light.
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