After a short spell in a mental institution, former teacher Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper) moves back in with his parents and tries to be well in order to reconcile with his ex-wife. Things get more challenging when Pat meets mysterious Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a sister of his friends annoying wife. Pat’s family are also a little dysfunctional with a father with OCD and an obsession with American football and gambling and an over emotional mother, we discover Pat has Bipolar Disorder.
Pat tries to work hard to get his “silver linings”, getting fit, staying off his drugs, trying hard to control his illness. When Tiffany enters his life, they decide to use each other to find the best in each other on the road to wellness.
Bradley Cooper shows a very different side to the actor/characters we have seen before. Here he isn’t the comedian or the good looking love interest, he is the mad fuck up, the unshaven unwitting hero in a story doomed to failure. And with that, he shines as Pat, all the bipolar tics and sudden switches in emotion are done to perfection. Some of the great comedic moments come from his sudden changes in emotion, from happy to angry and back again in a second.
The interaction between him and his father played again rather skilfully by Robert De Niro is so tender and harsh all in one. And the tension between Lawrence and Cooper at times were electric, the emotions bubbling under the surface and in your face all at the same time.
Great to see Anupam Kher as Dr Cliff in a major Hollywood feature, not seen him since Bend It Like Beckham!
I didn’t know what to expect from this film, I am no Cooper fan and tend to avoid his films in general. But this was a cute little film that took me by the head and shook it around a little. Some great performances, some unintentional hilarious laughs and a few little tears. It won’t win any Oscars in my book but it’s a great underdog.
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