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: July 13

Ice Age: Continental Drift - The fourth in the hugely successful Ice Age franchise, Continental Drift follows our favourite Paleolithic mammals after their continent is set adrift and they attempt to get back home.

Easy Money - A Swedish movie that's getting a limited release, Easy Money follows a man who becomes a drug runner in order to maintain a double life, causing things to go to shit after he meets a man on the run from the mafia and the mafia enforcer who is looking for him.  The thing that caught my attention about this was that they're already talking about doing a remake, which suggests that this movie is really good.

Red Lights - A paranormal horror and a cat-and-mouse thriller all in one, Red Lights stars Sigourney Weaver and Robert De Niro, which just sounds awesome.  I haven't seen anything about this movie and it's only getting a limited release, but based on the names I'm thinking it might be good.

Being Flynn - Another De Niro film, this one is about a young man who encounters his father while working in a Boston homeless shelter.  Directed by Paul Weitz, the same guy who did About A Boy and American Pie this movie could be really good, really bad, or a bit of both.

The Flowers of War - Staring Christian Bale, The Flowers of War brings him back to China during the Second Sino-Japanese War (a return from the 1987 film Empire of the Sun, his first major role).  This time the focus is on the 1937 Rape of Nanking and follows Bale's attempts to safe the women of Nanking by posing as a priest.

American Reunion - The fourth feature film in the American Pie series, American Reunion follows the old group as they embark upon their high school reunion and try to figure out just where their lives diverged from the path that they had once dreamed of.  I was pleasantly surprised by this movie, and suggest it for a night where you just want something easy and funny to watch.

Stonehenge - I recently re-read this Bernard Cornwell novel and it's definitely one of my favourite individual Cornwell novels - possibly even one of my favourite individual novels.  Stonehenge is a "how it could have happened" type novel and tells a story about how Stonehenge came into being. Cornwell takes what we know about the structure and the surrounding land and weaves it together with this wonderfully imaginative world that he creates.  In my opinion, Cornwell is at his best when he's writing his "how it could have happened" type stories, so you should totally read this book.

New Year's Eve (2011)

Stars: Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Ludacris, Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Zac Efron, Héctor Elizondo, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Seth Meyers, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Til Schweiger, Hilary Swank, Sofía Vergara

Director: Gary Marshall
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Rating: C-

When you get an ensemble cast like the one in New Year's Eve you should be able to expect something good.  There are a lot of big names in this film and so despite it being a romantic comedy you should be able to expect it to be something great - you look at a movie like Love Actually and expect something great.  New Year's Eve is a failure in that sense; despite having a stellar cast, it's really not that good of a movie.  In fact, I doubt the word 'good' should be used at all when discussing this film.

New Year's Eve is a series of vignettes set on, surprise-surprise, December 31st, in New York.  Swank plays the Vice-President of the Times Square Alliance and is in charge of the ball dropping on time - the biggest event of the year for Times Square.  Despite the importance of her job, however, there's a meeting at midnight that she's debating going to, as is encouraged by her friend Ludacris. Berry is a nurse caring for terminal patient De Niro, who speaks fondly of memories of seeing the ball drop and only wants to see it happen once more before he dies.  Elsewhere in the hospital, parents-to-be Biel and Meyers are anxious for their baby to be born, even more so when fellow expecting parent Schweiger lets slip that the hospital gives a huge bonus to the first baby born in the hospital in the new year.  Pfeiffer is a wallflower of a woman who has quit her job and hired Efron in order to help her make a list of New Year's resolutions come true.  Meanwhile, Bon Jovi is attempting to rekindle his romance with ex-girlfriend Heigl.  Upstate, Duhamel is stranded after a friend's wedding; he must get back into the city in time to give a speech at a ball, but there's the memory of a girl he met on New Year's Eve the year before, and a promise to meet her again that's hanging over him.  Parker is a somewhat highly strung single mother who is planning to do nothing on New Year's Eve but watch the ball drop on television with her daughter, much to daughter Breslin's disappointment - she was hoping to go to Times Square, without her mother, and experience her first kiss.  Oh, and Kutcher and Michele get stuck in the elevator to their building.

There are two major signs in that this movie isn't good; first of all, I skimmed a lot and yet I still had to write 300 words to summarize the film, and second of all, without going onto Wikipedia, IMDb, or another website, I am unable to tell you the name of a single character in the film (other than Jon Bon Jovi's Jensen, whose name is said a lot).  There are so many characters and different plots in this movie that it's hard to summarize it with less.  There's a lot going on, and as a result you really don't get the chance to know and love nay of the characters.  The only character who I really felt like I understood and had a feel for were De Niro and Berry; I was really moved by his struggles and desires and the way that he hopes to make it to midnight.  Beyond that, though, none of the characters were particularly moving.  Sure, some of the stories had potential and could have been great if they were developed more... but in the span of a single movie there was just way too much going on.  You didn't get the chance to care about the characters - you didn't get the chance to learn their names.

The only way that this film is able to really be coherent despite the lack of development is the fact that New Year's Eve borrows heavily from plots of other movies.  The guy who proposes to his girlfriend, gets cold feet and runs, then tries to make things up?  I've seen it.  The couple who's competing with another couple over something ridiculous? Seen it.  The guy who's in love with the woman that he's met once years ago? Seen it. Dying guy wants to make things right with his family?  Wallflower who finally works up the nerve to pursue her life long dreams? Person who has a major deadline for work and has to deal with things going wrong?  Mother has to figure out how to deal with her teenager? Seen it, seen it, seen it, seen it.  Oh, and pair who've never met before get stuck somewhere and have to deal (and of course fall in love)?  Yeah, seen that one too. My suggestion for anyone debating seeing New Year's Eve is to watch Love Actually if you're looking for a touching holiday-themed movie filled with love and vignettes or see one of the many other romantic comedies out there that focus on at most a couple plots and actually develop them.