SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
** SPOILERS **
Silver Linings Playbook is an experience of being locked in a room with crazy people yelling at each other for two hours and yet it still ends up being pretty okay. Bradley Cooper plays The Tasmanian Devil; a former school teacher released from the loony bin. Cooper is bi-polar and prone to explosive bouts of anger whenever he hears his wedding song because he caught his wife in the shower with another teacher and nearly beat him to death. On a normal day, Cooper is merely unbearable to be around, but when his condition kicks in, he's an unreasonable disaster. It runs in the family; his father Robert DeNiro is a Philadelphia Eagles bookie with OCD who relies on Cooper as his good luck charm. Pity his long-suffering saint of a mother Jacki Weaver for keeping it together living with these two psychos. Cooper meets Jennifer Lawrence, a crazy widow who once slept with everyone in her office out of grief and is herself under parental supervision. Cooper cuts a deal with Lawrence: she delivers a letter to his estranged wife he thinks he's still in love with, thus circumventing his 500 feet restraining order, in exchange for him becoming her partner as she enters an arena to do battle with 22 other teenagers until only one surv -- sorry, I mean, becoming her partner in a dance content. Also in this movie for some reason is Chris Tucker, popping in and out of scenes at random looking for Jackie Chan. The performances by Cooper and Lawrence are stellar; both are unequivocally convincing as emotionally disturbed movie stars. Their sexy dance performance together stands up favorably against that time John Travolta and Uma Thurman did the Batusi in Pulp Fiction. Obviously, Cooper and Lawrence are made for each other and get their happy ending - I mean, what are the odds of two attractive, diametrically mentally ill movie stars who enjoy going out for runs living in the same neighborhood? Pretty good, according to Silver Linings Playbook.
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