Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, John Ortiz, Anupam Kher, Julia Stiles, Chris Tucker

Director: David O. Russell

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Rating: A

Going into this movie I wasn't too sure about a lot of it.  It looked good, but I tend to be disappointed by Bradley Cooper movies, particularly this year.  I love Jennifer Lawrence, but I was really hesitant about seeing her pair off as a romantic partner for the much older Cooper - Lawrence is 22, Cooper 37.  But, it looked good, I like Lawrence, and I like David O. Russell, so I gave this film a shot.  And, by God, I'm glad I did.

Silver Linings Playbook follows Pat Solitano (Cooper), a man newly released from a mental health facility, into the care of his parents, Pat Sr. (De Niro) and Dolores (Weaver).  Following discovering that his wife Nikki (Brea Bree) was having an affair, Pat had a violent episode, leading to his incarceration and eventual diagnosis with bi-polar disorder. Now released, Pat is determined to prove to Nikki that he has changed and bettered himself, and eventually get back together with her - he's only hindered by the fact that there's a restraining order against him, preventing him from coming into contact with Nikki.  Even Pat's good friend, Ronnie (Oritz) and his wife Veronica (Stiles) refuses to contact Nikki on behalf of Pat, despite maintaining a friendship with her.  Then the recently widowed Tiffany Maxwell (Lawrence), Veronica's younger sister, bonds with Pat over their share neuroses and offers to deliver a letter to Nikki for him - if he participates in a dance competition with her.  Overlaying the whole thing is Pat Sr.'s obsession with football; after losing his job, Pat Sr. became a bookie in order to earn money to open a restaurant.  Pat Sr. is rather compulsive about his game-day superstitions, one of which requires Pat Jr.'s presence during games - something that Pat Jr. is not particularly eager in participating in.

I absolutely loved this story.  It's awkward and uncomfortable at moments, but in a way that completely makes sense in the film.  There are a lot of moments when I wanted to yell at Bradley Cooper's character for his actions - but his actions made sense given the nature of his character.  I felt similarly about Robert De Niro's character.  You spend so much of this movie wanting them to just calm down and be nice to each other, but that wouldn't work.  While Cooper's Pat is diagnosed with bi-polar it isn't hard to see that De Niro's Pat probably has it too.  The one problem that I had here was the fact that I really couldn't follow a lot of the football stuff and it wasn't until the first half of the movie or so was over that it began to make sense and really have a point, at least in my mind.

I both loved and hated Jennifer Lawrence's casting.  I think Lawrence played her character absolutely perfectly, and there was definite chemistry between her and Cooper, despite the age difference.  I went into this movie hoping that they didn't go the route of making her the love interest and midway through found myself really hoping that she would be the love interest just because of the chemistry between the two of them.  In a lot of ways, I found the character of Tiffany Maxwell to be a lot more intriguing than the one of Pat Solitano.  The one thing that I disliked here was that her age wasn't really established.  From my understanding of the book (which I haven't read), Tiffany is supposed to be older than Lawrence, but because the film doesn't really address this we're left thinking that this 22 year old - who looks younger - is a recovering sex addicted widow who is romantically interested in Bradley Cooper.  Relating to the overall Tiffany problems is the casting of Julia Stiles as her sister.  I like Julia Stiles overall, I just didn't really buy her as Jennifer Lawrence's sister - especially once we saw the actors playing their parents.  Casting is important, and I'm of the opinion that if you're casting two people to be siblings - especially when there's a good age gap - they should probably look a bit alike.

That having been said, though, this was a really good movie.  Really good.  Just to add into the general things that I liked about it, my favourite scene in the entire movie is early on when Pat has just finished reading Hemingway, has a "wait, that was the ending" moment, then throws the book out the window and goes on a rant about it, waking up his parents and flipping out, despite it being four in the morning.  I have wanted to react like this when reading books, and it was just so awesome to see someone actually do so.  The opening of the movie still had me a bit unsure about things, but this scene really cinched it for me.

Recommendations: November 16

I've missed a couple of these so I'm going to just quickly let you know what's come out in the last few weeks that I was planning on recommending. Because I'm going to do more than usual, I'm not going to spend as much time letting you know about the films - check them out on IMDb if you haven't heard of them.

Wreck-It Ralph -The latest from Disney, Wreck-it-Ralph is about a video game villain who sets out to become the hero for once.

Flight - The latest from Denzel Washington, this one's about an airline pilot who saves a flight from crashing. or something.

The Man with the Iron Fists - Somehow, Quentin Tarantino's name is being dropped a lot with this film, even though he's not credited as director, writer, producer, or anything really.  With an interesting cast, however, it looks fun and the trailers kind of make me think of an Asian-themed version of Sin City.

Skyfall - The latest James Bond.  I loved this movie, naming it as one of my favourite in the series.  Check it out now, if you haven't already.

Lincoln - Presumably, this one will be better than this year's other Abraham Lincoln-themed movie, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  This one's actually based on history and features big names like Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field, as Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as their son, Robert.

 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 - The thrilling conclusion to the Twilight Saga this one... yeah.  Okay, I'm going to admit two things here: one, I'm planning on seeing this in theatres and I'm sure I'll enjoy it, and two, I'm really glad that this is finally out because (hopefully) it means we can stop talking about Twilight soon.  Right?

Anna Karenina - This one's only getting a limited release, but it still looks great.  Based on the book of the same name by the legendary Leo Tolstoy, I can't wait to see it.  I really enjoy Keira Knightley films, even the bad ones, and think that she's at her best when in costume dramas.

Silver Linings Playbook - Okay, so I know, I know.  I don't really like Bradley Cooper movies, and yet somehow I keep on getting interested by the trailers for his movies this year.  This one features Cooper as a man just out of a mental institute and Jennifer Lawrence as the mysterious girl that he meets.  I'm going to go into this with an open mind; it looks good, it features Jennifer Lawrence, and it's directed by David O. Russell.

Safety Not Guaranteed - A new take on time travel, this one's about magazine employees who interview a guy who placed a classified add seeking a time travel companion.  I love time travel fiction, so I'm sure I'll enjoy this one.

Ruby Sparks - Paul Dano's latest, this one is about a writer who writes his perfect girl into existence.  I'm pretty sure I've seen it done before, but Ruby Sparks still looked cute.

Brave - The latest Disney Pixar animated film, this one's set in the 10th century Scottish Highlands, and thus features Scottish accents, Scottish music, and an overall amount of cute.  Not the best from them, but I enjoyed it.

Savages -  Also new to DVD is the latest Oliver Stone flick.  Once again, not his best, but definitely not his worst.

The Amazing Spider-Man - Spider-man, Spider-man, does whatever a spider can.  This was fun and great, and despite my disliking of origin stories I really loved it.

Your Sister's Sister - I still haven't seen this one, because it only got a limited release when in theatres, but I'm really looking forward to it - it's about a guy, a girl, and her sister, and the awkwardness that can happen there.

Arthur Christmas -This was actually released in theatres last year, and is only just now being put out on DVD - as is often the case with Christmas movies.  Arthur Christmas is about Santa Claus' oddball son on an attempt to save Christmas and is really cute.  A good way to start off your Christmas season.

John Dies at the End - I've recently started this one and I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it.  It's a fantasy and is definitely interesting, but I'm really not sure if I'm enjoying it or not.  I will definitely let you know how I feel about it, but until I do maybe you want to check it out yourself?

The Words (2012)

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana, Jeremy Irons, Ben Barnes, Dennis Quaid

Director: Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal

Genre: Drama, Romance

Rating: D

If Inception had been about books instead of dreams then this would have been that movie.  Actually, no, that’s not entirely accurate.  If Inception had been about books and had been really, really bad then it would have been The Words.  This movie was really disappointing; sure Bradley Cooper can be a bit hit-or-miss in his movies and not really a dramatic actor, but I really liked the concept, I really like the idea of frame narration, and I really like the rest of the cast.  I seem to be falling into that form of disappointment a lot lately; interesting concept, primarily stellar cast, bad movie.

Much like how Inception is about a dream within a dream within a dream, The Words is about a story within a story within a story.  Clay Hammond (Quaid) is an author who’s just released his latest book, also titled The Words, and is at a book reading for it where he meets student and major fan Danielle (Wilde), who hits on him and presses for more information about the book.  Hammond’s The Words is a story about Rory Jansen (Cooper), a struggling writer who finds an unpublished manuscript that amazes him and, after his wife, Dora (Saldana), mistakes the manuscript for his own he decides to get it published under his name.  Then he meets the Old Man (Irons), who tells Rory the story of the Young Man (Barnes) who wrote and lost the manuscript.

The big problem with The Words is the fact that it’s unbelievably slow.  The Hammond element to it is completely unnecessary and adds very little – what it does add is supposed to bring an element of mystery to the film but really just convolutes and confuses things.  The real story lies within Rory and the Old Man, not Clay Hammond, and as such the Hammond parts really take away from the overall story.  The one good thing that the Hammond part adds to the overall movie is the title sequence, which I enjoyed (although, like the movie in general, I felt it went on a bit too long).  Actually, I’m going to take back a bit of my critique on the Hammond story; I did like what they were trying to do with it, I just disliked the way they handled it.  In short, I felt the same about that one story line as I did about the movie overall.

Between the three story lines The Words does a lot of set up for a payoff that never really comes.  I liked the end of the Young Man story line – I liked the Young Man story line all around – and understood what they were trying to do with the Hammond, even if I don’t feel that they really achieved it.  The end of the Rory line, however, was just disappointing and rather anticlimactic.  There was no payoff, or at least not enough of one to justify the build up.  What can I say… The Words was all foreplay and no orgasm.

Hit and Run (2012)

Starring: Dax Shepard, Kristen Bell, Kristin Chenoweth, Tom Arnold, Bradley Cooper

Director: Dax Shepard and David Palmer

Genre: Action, Comedy, Romance

Rating: C

A few weeks ago I saw the trailer for Hit and Run for the first time and found myself laughing at it.  I very promptly chastised myself for laughing at a movie trailer that had Tom Arnold in it.  But the movie looked funny and the premise interesting, so despite the fact that it featured Tom Arnold I decided to go see Hit and Run.  My God, do I wish I hadn’t.

Hit and Run is the story about a guy, in the Witness Protection.  Charlie Bronson (Shepard) has lived in the middle of nowhere, California (I believe) for a number of years now because after a bank robbery, for which he was the getaway driver, went sour he sold out his friends.  His life is good, until he finds out that his girlfriend of a year, Annie (Bell) has the opportunity for an amazing job in LA.  Despite the fact that his former friends all live in LA Charlie decides that it’s totally smart for him to go to LA – without the aid of his assigned US Marshal, Randy (Arnold).  It all goes to shit, however, when Annie’s ex, Gil (Michael Rosenbaum) figures out Charlie’s real name and contacts Alex Dimitri (Cooper), the guy Charlie sold out.

I’ve been on a bit of a ‘start with the good stuff’ kick lately, so let’s break it.  The problem with Hit and Run is that it really isn’t funny.  There are funny moments, and I absolutely loved a lot of the scenes between Shepard and Bell, but for the most part it’s really just kind of lame.  Tom Arnold stopped being funny about the time he divorced Roseanne Barr, and I would even go so far as to question if he was funny before then.  I’m really hit or miss with Bradley Cooper - sometimes he’s funny, sometimes he pushes the joke too far – but I think when paired with Dax Shepard, who can be of a similar nature, disasterous results ensue.  Oddly enough, though, the real disappointment of the movie was Kristen Bell herself.  While I love Bell’s work in previous films, I found myself really bothered by her appearance in Hit and Run.  The entire time it was just a case of “why are you in this movie?” – with the answer being “because you’re sleeping with the director.”  It’s a joke that’s often made of bad performances, and while Kristen Bell’s performance was far from bad, the knowledge that she’s engaged to the director makes me think that the only reason she sunk so low as to do this movie was because she’s engaged to the director.  That or because Dax Shepard gave her a sloth.

In the good, though, there is the chemistry between Shepard and Bell.  Their off screen relationship transitioned really nicely onto the screen, with my favourite moments of this movie being the tenderness between the two of them.  The film’s opening scene was really beautiful and I liked the way that they kind of bookended it at the ending.  In many ways I kind of felt that the two of them were playing charicatures of themselves and the relationship that they had was based on their real life relationship.  A lot of the little things that happen between the two are things that you’ll see in reality but not in movies, which was nice.  The movie made me feel like the way that Charlie and Annie were must be a reflection of the way that Dax and Kristen are – while I acknowledge that there’s no real basis for such an opinion, they are acting, I do think it’s a sign of good acting, no matter how bad the movie itself turned out.