Cooper and Lawrence challenge genre norms in artful rom-com

In David O. Russell’s recent release Silver Linings Playbook, the line between insanity and love is tested in a captivatingly honest approach to romantic comedy. With a near-perfect balance of awkwardness and dark humor, this film brings a much-needed dose of reality and raw, candid dysfunction to the genre.

Silver Linings Playbook delves into mental health issues and their ensuing desperation for Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper), a former high school teacher who, after months in a psychiatric hospital, moves back in with his parents (Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver). Thrust into a desperate turmoil, Pat hopes passionately and senselessly to win back his ex-wife, despite the restraining order she has against him.

As Pat readjusts to the real world, he reconnects with old neighbors and family friends, leading him to meet Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence). A strange, mysterious young widow, Tiffany promises to help Pat get in touch with his wife as long as he will grant her one single favor.

With this exchange, Pat and Tiffany are driven into an affinity of one another’s lunacy. They are connected by their own mental instabilities, social ineptness, and violent tendencies. Tiffany’s sarcastic sass is a charming contrast to Pat’s simple bluntness.  Cooper and Lawrence manage to make some of the cheesier scenes acceptably cute, and they carry the essential darkness of their characters’ mania through most of the film.

Both characters remain dynamic, and on some levels are never completely revealed to the audience; Russell once again challenges the classic rom-com fallback in which characters soften so much that they end up in complete exposure. Instead, Pat and Tiffany remain partially concealed; many seemingly crucial details of their pasts are avoided and never disclosed. Their darkness is never lifted, which is what makes this film so interesting. The audience must make assumptions and accept the information they have been given, which may be just what the theme of this film pushes us to do: rather than attempting to fix the manic, incomplete messes in our lives, we must learn to coexist.

Silver Linings Playbook is a must-see for those of us who cringe at the tacky superficiality of the average romantic comedy. Its sweetness is challenged by an equivalence of darkness, and the final product is both artful and true-to-life.