SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK Post-Release Thread - Page 2

Whoa... whoa... whoa... tell me more about this movie pass credit card. I practically live at the movie theater and spend way too much on movies. How do you get this?

 

   Cool, here's the link and I think there's a promo code where you get 1 month free:SCREENTEAMSHOW

      Let me know how it works out!

 

http://movi.ps/UVmb7F

I guess because it just wanted to be just a little whiter than it already was, Chris Tucker (looking like Rush Hour era Tucker inflated himself) exists in the movie as Wacky Black Guy who teaches the white people how to dance.

 

This bother anyone else?

 

Not at all.  Unless you're just desperate for things to be offended by.

Yes....and no.

 

Yes, he's totally the magical negro in this film

 

But no...because I really, really liked him in this film.

 

 

SO I'M CONFLICTED!!!

I wasn't offended, just found it weird that in a very white movie, the only black guy was used that way, teaching whitey a lesson.

I wonder what Spike Lee thinks of this.

Somewhat totally aside, I haven't seen this yet so this might be way off base, buuut:

Some years ago I was in some online discussion about Magic Pixie Dream Girls.  We were trying to figure out what one would be like in real life and if any films bothered to depict them so.  To me it's obvious, as I've known one or two: a real MPDG would be a basket case (I think that was the general consensus actually) and there were a few implications of such in some other movies but Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind did show the dark side more than most (although I could be biased as she's disturbingly close to reality, right down to the hair).

 

So, since they're selling the awkward misfit romance angle very hard in the promotional stuff and the 'guy saved from morbid solitude and introspection by weird intrusive woman' seems to be there on the surface, and everyone says its very good with good characters and representation of neuroses/mental illness,  I'm wondering if this might be another one (kinda sorta).  A crabby, cantankerous one, on the part of Lawrence's character perhaps,  but maybe a little.

 

(nb: people who like the movie would probably recoil at the idea it even resembles something as male fantasy cheese as the MPDG formula.  Me; if it hit a few of the tropes but expanded and fleshed out the other side of the equation I'd be fine with labeling it as a good take on that sort of thing.  But I really have to see it I guess)

Just finished watching it.

I loved it. Anyone who has a mental disease or knows someone with any number of mental problems will find a lot to relate to here and a lot to laugh at. My god I loved this film.

Easily rockets up to the top 2 of my best of 2012 list. I will have to rewatch Argo just figure out which will be on top.

Also I can't believe this wasn't marketed more as a chick flick, the Weinsteins could have easily raked in the dough. First person I'm going to recommend this movie to is my Sister.

Agreed. Like I said earlier, I don't suffer from bipolar but I've dealt with anxiety/OCD and my family has a long history of anxiety problems. When they were going through the list of medication they've been on I was like "yeah, I've been on most of that". I could personally relate to the characters in the movie. That's why I loved it so much and they didn't try and treat it as a joke either. They were saying you can live a pretty normal life but still have these problems.

Same here, I suffer from depression and anxiety so I haven't been on all of them, but have heard of them all.

I also loved the scenes when the entire group was all at Pat's parent's house ready for a game and then Pat (Bradley Cooper) or Pat Sr. would say something that would set off someone else and their response would set off another person and so on. It was like watching a domino effect of neuroses.
Edited by Tim K - 2/1/13 at 7:46pm

I saw this earlier last week. I was quite apprehensive being bipolar myself. I'd read some reviews of people saying it's just a 'wacky' rom-com but I think it's so much more than that. It really gobsmacked me in places. Especially in the first half of the movie. It's so spot on in it's description of a bipolar sufferer. Waking everyone up at 3am to rant about Hemingway made me cry and laugh at the same time. I've been known to burst into peoples rooms in the middle of the night to rant about shit when I'm manic and that captured it perfectly. It's not like you don't give a shit about the person having some rest, It's that you just HAVE to have this DISCUSSION RIGHT NOW or your life can't move on. 

 

 I could go on about the connections between my experiences and his but it's there in the movie. Except I haven't been sent away after hurting anybody.

 

 I'm pretty glad this movie is out there. I welcome anything which either educates people or brings up discussion about this illness. Many people are scared to death of people like us but we are just running on different wavelengths. I'd never even heard about the book until recently which I really need to read.

 

 Jennifer Lawrence is super duper hot in this and her command of her role is mesmerising. I love Bradley Cooper, Jackie Weaver and De Niro. Even Chris Tucker winds it in which I thought would be the opposite. I've never seen him act so warm. He's wasted in the Rush Hour movies. A special mention to Shea Whigham who I was convinced would be a smarmy asshole brother which was cleverly dispelled within the first scene. 

 

 I probably love this more because of my personal connection to it's material but I genuinely feel less alone after watching this. At this moment I just feel I've found my 'Karate Kid' of bipolar movies. 

 

 I hear you. That scene was spot on about the drugs. I've been on all of them at some point. SO glad I'm away from them. As she say's 'I'm sharper now'. 

 

  Pat Sr was played very well too. He is as ill as Pat is but strangely nobody apart from Pat Jr really calls him on it. The whole 'losing the restaurant in a bet idea' was bipolar madness itself. I'm so glad/lucky that I'm not a gambler. Not a good mix. 

What a beautiful story. The best thing was the message "Love really drives people crazy and spread them around once they got heart broken, so all you need is to find another crazy victim like you to find love again"- Pure poetry The director's hand was a bit heavy, but not distracting. The game bet issue was a bit heavy handed from the writers, it was clear they tried to emphasize the climax and ending. My only story wise critique The acting was very good. Bradley became Bradley in the end. Jennifer maintained her character during the whole thing, like Jacki, she made me miss my mom. Robert was OK. Very interesting cinematography options, especially for key moments. I'm glad this film was done.

 

---

 

Alright, I bit the bullet and watched this fucker. Turns out, it was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be. A decent movie that is done in by its own hype. Having said that, I'd vote for Jennifer Lawrence over Jessica Chastain solely for the scene where she makes Robert DeNiro look like a shrinking violet in his own fucking house.

Incredibly well-acted fluff. I can't muster much else to say -- it's a movie where the outcome hinges on a dance competition score, for God's sake.

I enjoyed it mostly, but it turns from a subversive comedy about mental illness into a pat rom-com so quickly as to cause whiplash.

Why does Jennifer Lawrence love Bradley Cooper again? They had chemistry, but it felt like she fell in love 'cause, you know, the plot required it.

Have you seen Bradley Cooper?! But seriously, that I kind of bought simply because he's as nuts as she is so it makes sense that she'd latch onto him. It actually bothered me that by focusing the climax on Cooper's magical recovery, the movie completely ignores the fact that she's still a powder keg waiting to explode - not to mention that De Niro's OCD is actually vindicated.

 

I was talking to my brother about this, and we decided that this ending is the anti-Graduate.  You know if you think about it for half a second that there are all kinds of issues that are going to keep fucking these people up for a long time, but it ends on a note that suggests that not just the leads, but their entire extended families and therapists and sassy black friends have been completely cleansed by one pseudo-victory in a dance contest.

 

An above-average looking white guy with crooked eyes?  Yup, seen him.

I think Film Crit Hulk nailed it:

 

 

If this was any other film, we would be trashing the shit out of it for magically turning into a movie where everyone's lives get better thanks to a dance competition.

 

 

 

 

His left eye is not even with his right.  I demand symmetry in my men.

You're making him sad.

 

 

I make no apologies for calling an average-looking man average-looking.  That last pic looks like a homeless guy I see panhandling on the way to work every morning.  Why are his eyes so red?  Did he just toke up or something?!

I've also heard him referred to as a 'Birdman' because of his beak-like nose...possibly by Ryan Gosling fans who were upset that Cooper 'stole' the title of "Sexiest Man Alive" from him.

 

I love this 'Have you seen...?' argument. From the IMDB message board for "Ninotchka":

 

 

Ryan Gosling is a 6.5 at best.  BOOM.

Bradley whispers sweet nothings in Harley's ear  

 

(in French!) 

 

I'm jealous of Cooper's hair. Well, of every guy with thick hair. Fuckers.

 

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Harley is dropping the Truth Bombs tonight.

He's not an ugly guy, but he is not worthy of the hype that he gets.  He benefitted from being the best-looking one in the Wolfpack, but anyone who hangs out with a group of threes will look like a ten in comparison.

I'm still wondering how the fuck he was the breakout from The Hangover. Sure he was fine. But nobody walked out talking about him. Fucking Justin Bartha was more memorable.

Alright Harley, who's hot?  This ought to be good. 

But their lives did get better because of it. I don't think the movie was trying to say that everyone was going to live happily ever after. But that Bradley Cooper's character had finally moved on from his ex-wife and met someone else he loves and most of that was thanks to the whole dance competition, Robert De Niro won back all of his money and was able to open up his restaurant, again, thanks to the dance competition. So it did really fix some of their problems.

I feel like posting a picture of myself. I'm at least as good looking as Ed Helms, so I gotta be good for a 3.
Edited by The Dark Shape - 2/7/13 at 10:58pm

 

Well, yeah, that's the problem. It's pat and absurd. If they hadn't hit their score, would they all still be fucked up? Kinda. Movieish!

 

I've heard similar statements made about every sex-symbol alive, from Ryan Gosling to Megan Fox. So no offense to you but I won't believe a word of it until I actually see you respond to an overture from Bradley Cooper with a "get away from me, you wonky-eyed freak"

I know my sex and orientation don't make me the most authoritative judge on the subject, by how anyone gets worked up over the half scoop of vanilla ice cream that is Ryan Gosling is quite beyond me.

 

This is really the movie's only failing: it stops being kind of edgy and dangerous and decides to let Bradley Cooper be smooth Bradley Cooper and tie everything up neatly with a happy bow on top. Partly I think that's just a failing of the romantic comedy and the weight of expectations, and I strongly suspect that had the film gone in a different direction-- say, the Eagles lose, but Pat and Tiffany make their score in the dance competition-- audiences wouldn't be gravitating toward it the way that they are. But we'd be happier with it because the film would feel like something more than Silver Linings Bullshit.

 

If I felt like the film actually earned that standard trope-laden ending, I don't know that I would mind as much; happy endings are fine and noble, as Hemingway clearly never learned in his writing career, so long as the story being told deserves them. But I don't feel like Silver Linings Playbook is a movie that earns such an upbeat finish. Maybe one could justify it based on Pat's rant about happy ending earlier in the film, but you could also argue that based on Tiffany's fake letter, the film should have wound up somewhere in the middle.

 

The climax is a lovely high, but it feels dishonest.

I love that the Hangover series is called "Very Bad Trip" in Europe.

 

Hugh Jackman and The Rock.  Those are guys who I would stare at even if they weren't famous.  Bradley Cooper?  No.  Ryan Gosling?  No.  Again, not ugly guys, but they are not all that.

Harley's into the rugged, masculine dudes, and not the pretty guys. Lots of women are the same way.
 

 

Yup, I'm totally fine with a movie having a happy ending, I'm just against the movie betraying itself to get there. For a good example of a film that ends happily but doesn't make it nearly that easy see AS GOOD AS IT GETS.

Um, Wolverine is a put on. He's doing his best Clint Eastwood in that role (awesomely so). And yeah, that's how we were all introduced to the actor.

 

But this is, and has always been, the real Hugh Jackman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty funny.

It seems appropriate that the thread for this has become about rating the super hunks.

 

Infinitely more fuckable than Bradley Cooper.

 

Bradley Cooper isn't even pretty.  Orlando Bloom is pretty.

Now I see asymmetrical eyes everywhere. Hugh, join the crowd....

 

Loved this movie. I think it earns its ending, and the ending is about silver linings, not complete happiness, absolved of all problems. Winning the parlay bet was important to them, but entering the competition and following through was the real victory.

 

That's the problem, though-- the characters are absolved of all problems by the end. Pat Sr doesn't have to worry about his financials anymore after winning the bet, Pat Jr has finally put to bed his feelings for his ex-wife and reconciled with Tiffany. They're happy, everyone else is happy. I almost wouldn't have minded Pat becoming Smooth Bradley Cooper if Pat Sr had lost his bet, or (less likely) if Tiffany and Pat hadn't wound up becoming an item. If this is a movie about silver linings, I think you can have one or the other, but not both, because if you have both, "silver lining" doesn't really apply, I think.