Silver Linings Playbook

Now it’s not very often that I decide to watch a film that my Mum has suggested, but I had been interested in Silver Linings Playbook around the time of the Academy Awards, so I thought I’d give it ago. As I understand it, the film differs from the book quite a lot, but I’ll only talk about the film. Pat Solitano Jr. (Bradley Cooper) has just been released from a psychiatric hospital and is receiving treatment of bipolar disorder following the breakdown of his marriage. Through a friend of his he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) who can help him reconcile with his wife, which is an obsession of his throughout the film. He agrees to perform a dance with her in return for her sending his wife letters.

Bradley Cooper does fantastically well playing a very difficult part. His character is very complex, not only with bipolar disorder, but with obsessive tendencies and a very tense home life. There might be some autistic elements to his character as well, but that might just be me overlaying some stuff on top of an already troubled character. I couldn’t help but react with strong tension to some of his character’s comments and his flippancy, and for Cooper to portray these so convincingly is very impressive. He is very believable in Silver Linings Playbook, and conveys the struggles of a man trying to recover from mental illness incredibly well. And in addition to this, the dancing parts he appears in are very impressive. I think that his role is made even more impressive by this element, because it adds a bigger element of dedication to the role, and so Bradley Cooper deserves a lot of credit for this part.

Jennifer Lawrence plays the equally troubled Tiffany who helps Pat seemingly re-connect with his wife. From early on in their relationship it is apparent that she has strong feelings for Pat and their initial meetings are very tense and awkward. Despite her psychiatric issues she often seems to be a rational force in the plot, and this highlights at times exactly how deep Pat’s issues are. She is very likeable, and there is a definite sense of ‘Oh damnit’ when Pat’s wife shows up and their dance event. She won the Best Actress at the Academy Awards for this role, and I think I was quite sceptical in my Academy Awards review about this decision. However, having seen Silver Linings Playbook now I don’t think it was too strange a decision. Throughout the film she is very entertaining and her dancing is even more impressive than Bradley Cooper’s in the final scene. She too is very dedicated to her role, and upon reflection deserves the glittering career that I tipped her to have.

Robert de Niro plays Pat’s father, Pat Sr., and is another very troubled character. He wants to open a restaurant and is bookmaking to earn the money. He has what seems to be an unhealthy obsession with the Philadelphia Eagles, and his devotion to this certainly raised my eyebrows. Regular readers should know about my deep love for de Niro, and I think once again he is fantastic in this part. He is quite incidental, but in typical de Niro style it is the little things that he does perfectly. His reactions are what impresses me the most. His response to Pat’s search for his wedding video and the incident that follows is brilliant, and best of all is his emotion when he think that his son’s problems may be his fault. It will never be considered to be de Niro’s best role, but replacing him with another actor would harm the film. He is a very superstitious character, and this is interesting because it seems that he is a similar character to his son, and but for circumstance they would both be in a similar boat.

There are a number of supporting characters in Silver Linings Playbook that all add a little bit more to the film. Jacki Weaver plays the mother of the family and does a very good job of making her character more than just a housewife. She adds a much more personal element to the role than I think anyone else would have done, and her understanding of both her son and her husband’s obsessions and her son’s illness is conveyed beautifully throughout. Chris Tucker makes an appearance as well, as Pat’s friend from the hospital, and is more of a source of humour than other characters.

I think Silver Linings Playbook is a film which not only boasts a fantastic cast and a fantastic plot, and I don’t want to prattle on about the cast. The nomination of Silver Linings Playbook for Best Picture raised a few eyebrows when it was announced, but I think it is perfectly justified. It is a feel-good film as much as anything else. It puts you through the wringer a bit with the awkwardness and tension created by Pat but when everything works out alright in the end it is heartwarming. The best bit of symbolism in the film is the contrast at the start and the end. At the start, Pat’s photo is not up in the house, whereas his brother’s is, however after the dance his picture is put up next to his brother, suggesting his parent’s have accepted his issues.

Personally I really enjoyed Silver Linings Playbook, and I would definitely recommend it. It is difficult to categorise, but it seems to be a feel-good film about two people with mental health issues resolving these problems through each other. With a fantastic cast and some brilliant scriptwriting this film becomes one of the better films I have seen from last year. Definitely one to watch if you can.

Heat

‘Heat’ is one of those films that promises so much. With Al Pacino and Robert de Niro in leading roles, the standard of acting was always going to be ridiculously high. The film focuses around a policeman and a group of criminals, and sees Robert de Niro as the ‘bad guy’ planning a bank job with a group of friends. There are (as I remember) two scenes where de Niro and Pacino actually talk, but they are the best scenes of the film for me.

As far as the plot goes, it’s not a great film. In my opinion, the storyline is distinctly average, and it is the two leading actors who complete the film. However, I do like that Heat is not just about the crime, as the two leading characters both have a family life of sorts. For Pacino this revolves around his wife and her daughter (a young Natalie Portman no less), and for de Niro, there is a young woman who he feels strongly about. While the criminal activities of the group bring an element of enjoyment to the film, and both the opening crime and the bank heist are fantastic, I got the feeling that the whole film was geared towards the final scene where Pacino and de Niro face off.

However, nothing can take away from the performances of either actor in this film. Pacino once again displays the tendency that he has to be ever so slightly psychotic in the role that he plays. His policeman character is seen to be ‘close to the line’ on more than one occasion. The scene where he walks in on his wife alone with another man just displays this perfectly. He is fine with the cheating, but takes issue with the man using his television. Nevertheless he also has the tender side that often comes across in his films. His care for Natalie Portman’s character is exceptional, and the emotion he displays when he finds her in his bathtub is magnificent. He is portrayed as the antithesis of de Niro’s character, and is the policeman who is leading the investigation into their criminal activities.

While Pacino is a joy to watch, he is in my opinion, over-shadowed in this film by de Niro. Regular readers will know that I love Robert de Niro. For new readers, I consider him to be the greatest actor I have ever seen. Heat is by no means his best performance, but he is electrifying, once again embodying every aspect of his character. His attention to detail is perfect and the subtleties of his character are beautifully exposed. The line that stands out from Heat is “Don’t get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner”. This quote has grave consequences for de Niro’s character at the end of the film, and this was my favourite aspect of his character. Despite all of his criminal activities he still cares for this woman, and leaving her is obviously a big struggle.

Having just talked about Pacino and de Niro I’m probably going to be quite unfair on Val Kilmer. He is very enjoyable in this film, but he is massively overshadowed by the other two. He is an instrumental part of the crime gang, and is almost as enjoyable as de Niro when it comes to watching him rob the bank and hold up the armoured truck. He too suffers from the quote above, and the scene where his girlfriend betrays him to the police has emotion which Kilmer does immensely well to pull off. It’s quite difficult to talk about a supporting character in a film with leading actors such as those in, but Kilmer is an integral part of the film. Alongside de Niro and Pacino he is the only other character whose name I can remember, and whose face I can picture. Although that probably has more to do with his hairdo than anything else, he is no doubt one of the positive things about this film.

It does seem to me, that Heat isn't a great film with two great actors. For me it comes across more as a good film in which two great actors star. The two characters are definitely the stars of whichever scene they are in, but this could have more to do with the actors playing them than their importance in the film. I feel that if you removed de Niro and Pacino then Heat would be distinctly average, with very little going for it. If you like Pacino, de Niro or general gangster films then you should give it a watch, but if not then I should probably avoid it.

Raging Bull

Raging Bull is widely lauded as Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece, but it’s also the kind of film that people disagree on. It’s about the boxer Jake La Motto, who has a dazzling career ahead of him, but his personal issues, such as his anger and his love of food, ruin his family life and then his career. He ends up washed up and overweight performing jokes to a crowd who are not laughing, estranged from his wife, children and brother.

I thought it was a very good film, and enjoyed it greatly, but equally I could see how people would find it boring and dull. There’s not much that actually happens, and the film moves at a very slow pace. The fight scenes have been criticised as being unrealistic, but I think they are meant to be more artistic, and should be interpreted as Jake La Motto looking back on his fights. Nevertheless, love it or hate it, you have to sit back and admire Martin Scorsese’s direction once again. For me, he is the greatest director of his time. His choice to produce Raging Bull as a black and white film increases the artistic feel to the film, and I felt much more connected with the memory of the protagonist for it. But this may just be me.

Robert de Niro, working with Scorsese for the fourth time in his career, is absolutely masterful in this film. Not only does he manage to play a lead character who is totally and utterly dislikable, but he does it perfectly. He has played bad guys before, and he has played guys who should be dislikable, such as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, but in Raging Bull his character doesn't even has a drive or a motive to make the audience empathise with him. Personally, I didn't even pity his character at the end of the film when his wife leaves him and he becomes a washed up failed sportsman. Raging Bull is also a dedication to how much de Niro likes to throw himself into every role he plays. There are some impressive stories of him doing this, but for Raging Bull he gained 60 pounds of weight to play Jake in his older days. 60 pounds! That’s just over four stone. He captures every single aspect of his character, from the ambitious boxer to the man who hits his wife, begs her back and then does it again. In my opinion, Robert de Niro is the greatest actor, not just of his time, but of all time.

Joe Pesci stars in Raging Bull, making his first appearance on a Scorsese movie, and performing admirably as Jake’s brother and manager. His patience with his brother is admirable, and the audience really begins to sympathise with him when Jake starts to throw his life away. However, there is a sense of ‘something coming’ throughout the movie, and when Jake begins to get paranoid about his wife, he attacks his brother, believing him to have slept with her. This leads to a period where they don’t talk, and the scene where they are eventually reunited is one of my favourites. Jake tries to make amends with his brother, and Joe Pesci delightfully portrays a character who is so sick of his brother’s ways that he just doesn't care. On the basis of this film it is not hard to see why Scorsese wanted to work with Pesci again: he is simply excellent.

Cathy Moriarty plays Jake’s wife Vikki. She starts the film as being beautiful and desirable. However, mainly due to Scorsese’s direction, she becomes more and more ruined by having Jake in her life. When he hits her for the first time, Moriarty’s response is perfect. Instead of leaving him like the perfect wife would in Hollywood, she does what is most common in cases of domestic abuse, and believes it is a one-off event. Now I don’t want to get onto domestic violence because it is too sensitive an issue for my humble blog, but when she eventually does leave him, and takes her children with her, I found myself delighted, and feeling that Jake deserves everything he gets.

People have lauded Raging Bull as the best sports movie ever made. Now this is a claim I disagree with. I think that the movie is not a sports film. Undeniably it focuses on the life and career of a boxer, but for me the movie is more about his life and his character than it is about the sports. For an out-and-out sports movie, Rocky would be my first choice, just because it focuses more on the sport and less on his character.

At the start of the film, Jake is surrounded by people who all adore this future boxing star. However throughout the film, one by one these people leave him and by the end of the film, he is standing alone in his dressing room reciting lines for his show that few turn up to. Raging Bull is an absolute classic. Many people disagree on whether it is brilliant or boring, but I think that you should see it for yourself and making your own mind up. Personally, I loved it, and I consider it to be one of those films that you just have to see.

Casino

Casino is a spectacular film. It's another classic Scorsese-De Niro partnership and it is masterfully produced. It tells the story of Sam 'Ace' Rothstein who starts out in sports gambling but hits the big time and runs a casino. Joe Pesci plays the 'enforcer' Nicky Santoro, and Sharon Stone completes the star studded cast, playing Ace's wife Ginger. Like most Scorsese films it starts with a scene from later on in the film and then explains how things got to that point.

The plot basically follows the lives of these three characters over an unknown period of time, and it's written superbly. It's definitely the sort of film that you need to pay attention to. You can't have it on in the background and expect to understand it, but if you do get into it, it's really enjoyable. It is based on a true story, like Goodfellas, and this makes the film even more impressive. Some of the details are changed for cinematic effect I assume, for example the casino that Ace runs is called the Tangiers, but this is a fictional casino. It also has a really cyclical nature to it. Ace starts the film gambling on sports events, and that's exactly where he ends up at the end of it.

Scorsese, as ever, does not hold back on the violence either. Joe Pesci's scene at the end is as pretty grim, but the icing on the cake is the 'vice scene'. Anyone who has actually seen the film will know what I'm on about, and for anyone that hasn't, don't try to find out about it if you're a bit squeamish  Also, he doesn't hold back on the profanity, and Casino ranks fifth on the list of films to frequently use the word 'Fuck'. This all contributes towards a very heavy going, yet gripping film.

Robert de Niro is, unsurprisingly, completely sublime, perfectly portraying the character of a casino owner. Every microcosm of detail is covered by his acting, and once again, I found myself marvelling at his portrayal of Ace Rothstein. De Niro is perfectly at home in the gangster role, as Goodfellas evidenced, and so Casino is no exception. His protection over his daughter, and his reaction towards Ginger at various points in the film   and his relationship with Joe Pesci compliments his style perfectly.

Joe Pesci is also at home as the loose cannon enforcer whose violent 'dealings with' people often put a stain on Ace's legitimate appearance. As with the 'dance scene' in Goodfellas, the 'vice scene' in Casino is disturbing and stands out from the rest of the film. His character is interesting though, and Joe Pesci plays him perfectly. Whether he's comforting Ginger or asking Ace for help or if he's being warned about his lifestyle and the effect he's having on Ace's reputation there's always the feeling that he could fly off the handle. His protection of his brother at the end of the film is a touching addition to his character, but the end that he meets matches his lifestyle and the punishments he's dished out perfectly.

Sharon Stone's character changes dramatically throughout the film. She starts off as a really nice and delightful woman, and you get the impression that her and Ace are a good match. However, as the high roller lifestyle catches up with her she becomes more and more dislikable. The scene where she's trying to get into the house to get her things exemplifies this, and her need for the jewellery and money that Ace promised her is also very dislikable. However Casino seems to be a classic example of two guys who are close friends for years, and it only takes a woman to tear them apart. She does very well in this role.

Casino is a heavy-going film, and I'd really only recommend it to people who genuinely liked Goodfellas and other similar gangster films. It's not a light film, it's not a short film, and it takes some effort to watch it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.