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.

The 85th Academy Awards Special

Well it was the Academy Awards last night, and while I wasn't able to watch the ceremony, I was following avidly on twitter. There were a few surprises, a few obvious winners, and a few questionable decisions, but that was to be expected. Life of Pi turned out to be the big winner, bagging 4 awards having been nominated for 11. I’m going to attempt to give you a few of my thoughts on the winners and losers, and I’m going to skip over a few of the awards that it would be wrong for me to talk about.

So, not having seen any of the films in the category, I don’t feel suitably qualified to talk about Best Live Action Short Film, Best Animated Short Film, Best Feature Documentary, Best Short Subject Documentary, or Best Animated Feature. What I will say though is that it didn't surprise me that Brave won this award.

In terms of the award for Best Visual Effects there was only going to be one winner for me. While the visual effects in The Hobbit, The Avengers and Prometheus were incredible (and I haven’t seen Snow White and the Huntsman so I can’t comment on that), Life of Pi absolutely eclipses anything that these films could do. This was perhaps the most obvious winner of the night for me, and it completely deserves its success. Life of Pi also won the award for Best Cinematography which I thought was interesting. This was perhaps one of the closest awards of the night, because any of the five nominees (Life of Pi, Anna Karenina, Django Unchained, Lincoln and Skyfall) could feasibly have won. After I saw Anna Karenina, and after slating the film because I thought it to be very weak, the best thing I could say about it was that the cinematography was brilliant. However, that doesn't mean that the cinematography of Life of Pi wasn't  and so this is another deserved award. In terms of Best Original Score, I thought Life of Pi was, again, a deserving winner. The other films in this category just didn't quite match up for me, and Mychael Danna deserves the credit (and the award) for creating the soundtrack for Life of Pi. Finally, Ang Lee won the Best Director award for Life of Pi, and I have to say I was a bit surprised at this. I was sure Steven Spielberg would be nailed on for this award for Lincoln. However, having seen Life of Pi, I’m sure there are very few that would begrudge Ang Lee his second award for Best Director.

Lincoln bagged two awards last night, after having been nominated for 12. For many people, Lincoln was the favourite to sweep the board and win more than it did. Now I haven’t seen Lincoln, so I’m going to have to keep this relatively brief. In terms of Best Production Design I’m sure the production of Lincoln was fantastic, but Life of Pi, Les Miserables and The Hobbit are all films which are fantastically produced. I’m sure that this decision is justified, but I need to see it to make a judgement. Believe me, Lincoln is high up the ‘films I want to see’ list. I didn't think the decision to hand Daniel Day-Lewis the Best Actor award was particularly surprising. At the end of the day, Bradley Cooper was never going to win for a rom-com, and Hugh Jackman for me, didn't do enough to be considered a deserving winner. From the bits I have seen of Lincoln, Daniel Day-Lewis is marvellous and is definitely deserving of this award.

Ben Afleck’s film Argo won three awards, including the big one, Best Picture. Again, I haven’t seen Argo, but I mean to, and so my comments will have to be speculative. Best Film Editing is probably deserved, and I didn't think that Zero Dark Thirty or Life of Pi should have won it (as these two were the second favourites for me). I have no major objections to Argo winning Best Adapted Screenplay, but I thought Life of Pi was unlucky to miss out. The adaptation of Argo from the sources that it is based on is fantastic, and likewise, Life of Pi is fantastically adapted from the book. Now Argo was widely tipped to win the Best Picture award, and of the front runners (I thought that Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty were all in with a shout) any of them would be deserving winners. It is a fantastic achievement for Ben Afleck, and settles much of the debate around the Zero Dark Thirty versus Argo arguments. This year though there were a couple of surprises on the nominations list. Silver Linings Playbook raised a lot of eyebrows for its inclusion, as did Amour, and I don’t think either of these were in with a chance. Django Unchained deserved its nomination but it was a bit too controversial to ever really win, and in the end, Argo is probably a very good winner.

Now there are a lot of awards that I don’t really have anything to say about at all. Anna Karenina won Best Costume Design, and yes, the costumes were good in it. Les Miserables won Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and yes, the makeup and hairstyling is very good. Les Miserables also won Best Sound Mixing, which was good. Best Sound Editing caused a bit of a stir as it was the sixth time in the history of the Academy Awards (85 different ceremonies) that two films have been tied for an award. Skyfall (the first Bond film to win an OSCAR) and Zero Dark Thirty won this award, and of the other nominations (Argo, Django Unchained and Life of Pi) I think any of them could have won, because the sound editing was very good in all of them. Skyfall also won the award for Best Original Song, adding another award to Adele’s growing list. This can’t have been a surprise as it was in the charts for such a long time that it was bound to win. Amour won Best Foreign Language Film which isn't surprising considering it was the most widely known on the list. Anne Hathaway won Best Supporting Actress for Les Miserables and this was so unsurprising that I’m fairly sure that if I were a bookie I would have paid out on this before the ceremony began.

On a more positive note, Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Django Unchained, and I feel this is definitely deserved. He is simply glittering in the roles that Tarantino writes for him. His mix of humour and incredible acting means that he stands out from the other nominees as the best supporting actor from 2012. This represents a much more light-hearted victor from the Academy, with Tommy Lee Jones many people’s (including mine) favourite choice for the award. Another tip of the hat goes to Quentin Tarantino and Django Unchained for winning Best Original Screenplay. This was up against a number of excellent films like Amour, Flight and Zero Dark Thirty, and winning this award is a move towards a greater appreciation for the comedic yet controversial bloody movie that Tarantino specialises in. I think Zero Dark Thirty was unlucky not to win this award, but Django Unchained is definitely the one to lose out to.

Finally, I thought the decision to give Jennifer Lawrence the award for Best Actress for her role in Silver Linings Playbook was very strange. While it will guarantee her a successful career more than her role in The Hunger Game could ever do I thought that Jessica Chastain was fantastic in Zero Dark Thirty. Now I’m not saying that she did not deserve the award, and I haven’t seen Silver Linings Playbook, so I can’t possibly comment, but I guess when you have nominations for the film in the Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Supporting Actor categories the film is doing something right.

As I mentioned, the big winner was Life of Pi with four awards. However I feel that everyone associated with Zero Dark Thirty can be disappointed not to have won more. There is no doubt that this year’s Academy Awards was incredibly close and many films appeared in several different categories, meaning that one would always come off worse. Before I finish writing I would just like to mention the In Memoriam part of the ceremony. Jack Klugman (appeared in 12 Angry Men and Quincy ME), Ernest Borgnine (the original voice of SpongeBob), Eiko Ishioka (winner of Best Costume Design for Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1992), Richard Zanuck (Driving Miss Daisy) and Larry Hagman (Dallas) all passed away this year, and all will be remembered for their contributions to cinema. Finally, and if nothing else, spare a thought for Michael Clarke Duncan whose most notable film is The Green Mile. He passed away in September at the age of 54 from a heart attack, and he will be sorely missed.