Why I liked "Silver Linings Playbook"

So tonight my wife and I went to see "Silver Linings Playbook."  I forget if I had seen the trailer or not, but it really wasn't on my radar.  However, it was on hers.  And as it turns out, I really liked it.  Here's why:

1. First of all, it's a movie that dares to be different.  It's quirky, calling on the main characters, all played by big stars, to portray strange people, some of questionable mental health, who somehow find a way to be happy.

2. It's a cooky ensemble movie with a quirky sensibility following in the footsteps of a slew of smart, left-of-center movies such as "Little Miss Sunshine," "Moonrise Kingdom,"  "About a Boy," and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape."  The characters are loveable, yet they sometimes uncomfortably approach being anti-heroes.  Yet ultimately, sanity and triumph prevails, and they attain simple everyday victories and the resulting happiness of truly being alive.

3.  It's a heart warming love story about the simple triumph of people caring for each other.  I personally really liked it when Bradley Cooper's character reveals that he loves Tiffany, the character played by Jennifer Lawrence (I just looked up her name on Google since I didn't remember it).  It reminded me of how grateful I was when I told my wife that I loved her, six months after we met.  Maybe our life will be made into a movie also!

4. This movie just made me feel happy to be alive.  Some movies jostle me, some movies inspire me, some movies challenge me to want to play a bigger role in life (this last one is what "Lincoln" and "Avatar" did).  "Silver Linings Playbook" gave me a sense of peace and enjoyment.  Hooray!

5. I identified with Pat's situation and was curious about it from the beginning.  I've been through my own shit in life, a trying time when I also had to start all over, remove myself from my own routine just like Pat did (I finally looked up the character's name!).  No, I didn't go to a psychiatric ward!  But I did take over a year off from college after dropping out, and in that time I didn't do much besides recuperate and reset before moving forward with graduating from college and adulthood.  I suffered from severe anxiety and depression after exhausting myself for years in my studies.  Movies about hospital patients struggling to re-enter society have a certain appeal for me because I relate to those characters in my own way. Such movies are "Patch Adams,"  "Girl Interrupted," and even "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," which I just saw for the first time last week, and though that is of course a very dark movie, still, I could relate.  Another one, which I had to look up on Google as well to remember (Google =makes us all geniuses of information retrieval), is "It's Kind of a Funny Story."

6.  Bradley Cooper did a bangin job as Pat.  His performance was definitely Oscar worthy, in my opinion.   It's always impressive for me to see an A-list male celebrity known for his "coolness" and "sex appeal" to take a risk with an underdog, a conflicted, strange, problematic character like Pat.  Him playing this role renewed my liking for Cooper and instilled greater respect in me for him.  I had a similar reaction to seeing Christian Bale in "The Fighter."  When a hot shot leading male actor takes a risk with with a role like this,  I think it demonstrates their artistic intelligence and versatility.   Other leading "hot shot" males who have impressed me in the past are George Clooney (in "Up in the Air" and "The Descendants," for example), and Brad Pitt (in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Moneyball").  It is my opinion that true artists don't limit themselves, and Cooper shows real courage here (as do the rest of the ensemble...  I'm sure other people will identify with other characters based on who they are; in my case, I identified the most with Cooper's character).

There ya go, that's my thoughts on what was appealing about the movie.  I'm a big fan of movies, and my wife and I tend to choose good ones.  In this case, I didn't have any expectations, but since she was interested in seeing it, I thought it would be good.  And I wasn't disappointed.