Silver Linings Playbook

I am bi-polar. I have been that way since I was a young man. I am approaching 60. I have been in treatment for many years. There have been relapses and time spent in hospitals. There have been good times. Before I received good treated, I left a trail of emotional, professional, and relational disaster behind me. It broke apart the lives of others as much as it did my own.

I did not know what to expect from this movie. It is a stunningly accurate trip into the mind of a BP sufferer. It shows the disease from the outside, too. It is amazing in its accuracy. The mood swings, the detachment from reality, the failure to learn from past errors are there. Here is a guy who has so messed up he is in the hospital. He is released into the custody of his parents. He improves himself physically yet cannot see what he has done, what he is now, and what the future portends with any sort of reality.

There are other situations in the film which mirror the BP life. There are job losses, broken relationships, unlimited optimism, anger, and a feeling that no one understands you. But he doesn't even understand himself. He thinks he is the only sane person around. He is in complete denial yet goes along with treatment just to get along with others.

The obsession with his estranged wife drives him. Everything he does is to make himself look desirable to her.

Then there is the hair trigger and the propensity toward violence which ultimately put him into the hospital. He has the belief that he sees with much more clarity than anyone else. There is also the hatred of medications and the belief that he doesn't need them.

Yet, there is hope. There is no miraculous cure. There is a negotiated peace between his illness and the way he must be to survive in the world.

The only thing I felt was missing was the crushing depression. But I understand that. Depression makes for lousy movies. The film is strictly about a manic life that wants to be better but cannot accept that he is badly off dead center normal.

If you are bi-polar and under control, see this film! If you live with or deal with a BP, see this movie. If you are untreated, you won't get it because BP clouds the mind.

My new wife and I went to see it. Up front I told her that I had this mental illness. She still married me. She is a health care worker with an understanding of illness and of treatment. After the film she asked me what I thought.

I told her that I was a bit frightened to tell her that the portrayal is spot on and that I had seen all of it before.

But like all bipolar sufferers, I wanted her to know that "I was never that bad." The truth is, I was....but we BP people don't handle reality all that well.

While the big headlines might be taken by the Oscar nominated lead actors (and also Oscar winner, regarding Jennifer Lawrence), the other good news is that De Niro finally had a role he could relish in again. And a role we as viewers would actually like to see him in too. There have been a few lesser roles he played over the past couple of years. And while he is never able to completely disappoint, you won't remember him for a movie called "Freelancers" and others in that vain.

But back to the leading couple. A couple that is really so far apart, that you know what that ultimately means for them. But Bradley Coopers character has a lot more going on than that. There are relationships that went wrong and it's really tough sometimes to watch him destroying himself or at least attempting to. A very good movie, with great dialog

People are saying that it's "offensive" and "too happy" to be real, and that surprises me. As someone who lives with mental illness (severe major depression with severe psychotic features), and was in psych ward for quite a while, I didn't find it offensive. I found it to be remarkably accurate in portraying some of my own struggles, with mind-dulling medications, unwanted outbursts, deep paranoia, odd tics, etc. that I have had for over ten years. As for the "overly happy" stuff? Too many movies and TV shows focus on being "dark" and "edgy", so I found it refreshing to see someone going through struggles being positive about it. I won't pretend to have had the most difficult life, but it hasn't been easy. I saw this movie a few months after I was released from psych ward (2016), and I can honestly say it gave me a bit of hope to find my own silver lining. The world needs more positivity.

Based on a novel by Matthew Quick, David O Russell has both written and directed this variation on the romantic comedy in which both main characters are deeply damaged and variably medicated.

Patrick used to be a teacher before he beat up a fellow teacher (he deserved it) and was diagnosed as bi-polar and confined to a mental institution for eight months. Tiffany used to be married to a cop who died in circumstances for which she feels blame and she has not been behaving as quietly and demurely as is expected of the newly bereaved. Both lead roles are played by attractive and talented young actors: Bradley Cooper ("The Hangover") and Jennifer Lawrence ("The Hunger Games") and, by the time I caught up with the movie on DVD, Lawrence had been awarded a deserved Academy Award for Best Actress for this quirky performance.

One of the distinctive features of this wonderful film is that most of the characters are obsessive to one extent and in one form or another, most notably Pat's father who is charmingly portrayed by veteran Robert de Niro. At turns funny and poignant, this is at heart a plea for us to be tolerant of others because - let's face it - we're all a little crazy.

I wanted to hate this movie sooo much. This is because a bunch of people told me to watch it, and not in a "hey this is a great flick" way but in a derogatory, judgmental "you NEED to watch this movie (lingering stare)" way. I get it. It's about people with some serious mental issues. Sure, I'll watch it just to say I did.

But instead of hating it, this movie won me over. Yes, it's about people with mental issues, but a subtle point of the film (which my judgmental friends didn't seem to get) is that EVERYONE is messed up, whether or not they admit to their disorders. It may take a while for this message to sink in, especially for those who tend to view the mental spectrum in black & white, but once you get it, this movie becomes a great experience in understanding the human psyche from all angles.

Ok, if you made it past my opening 2 paragraphs, here's the fun part. "Silver Linings Playbook" is a quirky, mostly lighthearted flick about 2 people who are each labeled as "crazy" and their odd relationship. The humor is similar to something you'd see in a Wes Anderson flick (Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums, Life Aquatic) or maybe even Jonze/Kaufmann (Being John Malkovich, Synecdoche NY). By that, I mean it's subtle without any big punchlines or slapstick gags. The sheer randomness and bizarreness of the characters' words, actions and reactions provide the comedy. So don't expect a lot of knee slappers, but at the same time there are a lot of funny lines that are very memorable.

Also, even though I described this as a "romcom", it's really not a romance or a comedy. It's more about the unique strangeness in all of us, set against the backdrop of romantic relationships. That's all you really need to know about the plot because it defies explanation. But I'll still attempt to sum it up in 1 sentence: A guy who has just been discharged from the nut house (Bradley Cooper) who is violently obsessed with winning back his ex-wife, befriends the "town slut" (Jennifer Lawrence), and they begrudgingly team up in an attempt to get both their lives together.

It's a great flick, probably best watched alone. Terrible first-date movie because it's not exactly your typical charming Hugh Grant type ice breaker. You probably won't want to watch it with your parents or kids either because there is a heavy, awkward sub-plot about dysfunctional family relationships. Definintely not a chick flick nor a bro flick (except that there's a lot about football, in a funny way). I would say watch it with your dog and have a great time.