SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK REVIEW

*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

Jennifer Lawrence is one of my favourite actresses and, although she isn't the main character in this, she shines. She really deserved to win her Academy Award for 'Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role'. She plays Tiffany alongside Bradley Cooper's character, Pat Solitano, who has just been discharged from a mental health hospital in Baltimore after he caught his wife Nikki, who is an English teacher, having sex with a history teacher in the shower and he almost beat the teacher to death. The film begins with him leaving the hospital with his mother and we learn how bad Pat's bipolar is. He is desperate to get back with Nikki and tries to convince everyone around him that he is better. Unfortunately, there are two nights when Pat loses control of his bipolar; one after he reads one of the books on Nikki's syllabus and another when he can't find his wedding video and ends up getting into a fight with his father and waking up the whole neighbourhood. I don't have bipolar but Bradley's acting gives a great insight into how difficult living with it can be.

His friend, Ronnie, invites him to a dinner party which is where he meets Tiffany, a depressed widow and sex addict who has recently lost her job after having sex with most of the staff. He finds her hard to understand at first, but his therapist convinces him to be friends with her. This leads to Pat asking Tiffany to give Nikki, who she is close with, a letter that he has written. Tiffany agrees on one condition: that he be her partner for a dance competition. This is where the comedy comes in. Neither are professional dancers and the scenes when they are trying to dance are really funny. As the months go by, they become more and more close and, by the end, develop feelings for each other.

For those who find it difficult to understand mental health conditions, I would recommend this film. Both Bradley and Jennifer give accurate and outstanding performances as characters suffering from different mental health conditions and, like I said, Jennifer really deserved her Oscar for this role.

Another great supporting act is Robert DeNiro, who plays Pat's father of the same name, who suffers from OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and gets angry a lot of the time when trying to deal with his son's bipolar. One of his best performances in my opinion.

This film accurately shows mental health conditions in a dramatic way with bits of comedy thrown in which works really well.

9/10