Silver Linings Playbook

Reviews from the Dark Side presents
Silver Linings Playbook
Released 11/16/12, now in theaters

Mental illness is spotlighted in David O. Russell's dark rom-com, Silver Linings Playbook.  The many-time nominated for a hundred different awards all-star cast includes Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro, Chris Tucker, Jacki Weaver, and Julia Stiles.  That last sentence is said jokingly (although it's true) as I was actually quite looking forward to seeing the film.

Pat Solitano (Cooper) has been a guest of the state mental ward for the past eight months.  Having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Pat was assigned to the institution as part of a plea bargain for having...overzealously beaten a man who he caught having an affair with his now estranged wife, Nikki.  Upon release to his parents' care in Philadelphia, Pat wants to do nothing more than reunite with Nikki.  That is, if he can get around that pesky restraining order she has on him and his father's obsession to bond with him every Sunday watching the family's beloved Eagles play football.  To that end, he becomes obsessed with improving himself physically and mentally becoming a workout junkie even before he's released from the mental hospital.  To the dismay of his parents, Pat Sr. and Dolores ( DeNiro and Weaver), he  also refuses to take his meds initially which leads to disastrous and, at times, comical results.

Some time after his release, Pat has dinner with his friend, Ronnie (John Ortiz) and his wife, Veronica (Julia Stiles). He meets Veronica's sister, Tiffany ( Lawrence).  Tiffany in many ways is as big of a mess mentally as Pat.  She is a recently widowed, jobless, recovering sex addict.  After several other "chance" meetings with Tiffany (mostly on his daily jog), Pat and Tiffany develop an odd friendship.  In Tiffany, Pat sees his opportunity to communicate with his wife through her as she is an acquaintance of Nikki's.  He asks Tiffany to pass a letter to Nikki that he has written explaining how much he has grown and changed.  In exchange, Tiffany needs something from him.  She has begun dancing as a therapeutic exercise and wants to enter an annual competition in the city.  She needs a partner to enter.  It takes some convincing (and a tantrum) from Tiffany, but Pat agrees to be her partner as he thinks it will further prove to Nikki how much he has changed.  The two of them begin a rigorous training regimen in preparation and become closer without realizing it (at least Pat doesn't at first).

 Meanwhile, the competition also becomes part of a parlay bet Pat Sr. makes with his gambling buddy.  After losing a large bet on the Eagles/Giants game, Pat Sr. doubles down on the Eagles winning the next Eagles/Cowboys game with the added stipulation that Pat and Tiffany must have an average score of "5" in their competition for him to win back his money to open is dream cheesesteak restaurant. No pressure there for two extremely neurotic people on medication, right?

It's always risky to tackle a subject as delicate mental illness in a comic manner.  It's not always done well.  Russell pulls it off nicely without becoming overly sentimental and also not glossing over the fact that the two leads have serious problems.  It's not a complete farce like Me, Myself, and Irene but it still has plenty of laughs throughout keep the audience engaged without depression.  It's a story of two damaged individuals who miraculously find stability in each other.  It's a sweet, if somewhat demented love story that thankfully bends the rules of traditional rom-coms. 

As much as the director, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence make this movie pop.  The accolades they have received for their performances are well deserved.  They are both terrific and believable in their angry, manic states.  And they have the most important quality that two leads should have in a love story.  Chemistry!  As unstable as both of their characters are, they just fit.  The entire cast gives good performances from Robert DeNiro's obsessive/compulsive Pat Sr. (wonder much where his son's problems come from?) to Chris Tucker as Pat's mental patient escapee friend.  And, honestly, I don't really know how Jacki Weaver's, Dolores,  wasn't in a psych ward herself looking after her husband and son. 

Silver Linings Playbook while not uproariously funny is still one of the better 2012 comedies I've seen.  It's also one of the better 2012 movies I've seen period.

The Dark Lord of the Sith says:

**** stars

Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee.
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here. 

Mama

Reviews from the Dark Side presents
Mama
Released 1/18/13, now in theaters

Reviews from the Dark Side presents its first review of 2013 with the Guillermo Del Toro produced supernatural horror/thriller, Mama.  Andres Muschietti makes his directorial debut.  With a PG-13 rating, there is little bloodletting for fans of the splatterfest.  Instead, Mama's horror is more in the same vain as films such The Ring and The Grudge. 

The film begins with a businessman by the name of Jeffrey (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) taking his two daughters, Victoria and Lilly, from the home of his estranged wife.  Jeffrey has lost everything in a stock market crash including his mind.  He has killed several of his associates and his ex-wife.  Speeding off on a snowy road with his children, he crashes his car in the woods.  Seeking shelter in an abandoned cabin, the distraught Jeffrey decides to end the lives of his young girls before, possibly, ending his own.  He is abruptly stopped and killed by an ethereal entity, saving the girls lives.  Victoria "sees" this strange being, but cannot discern its appearance due to her glasses being smashed from the earlier crash.  Alone and abandoned, how do three-year old Victoria and one-year old Lilly survive? 

Flash forward five years.  Jeffrey's twin brother, Lucas, and his rocker girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain), have been searching for Jeffrey and the girls since their disappearance.  Finally, with their funds all but depleted, their efforts are rewarded when searchers discover the abandoned cabin.  Victoria and Lilly are still alive but living in the wild in a feral state.  The girls are brought back to civilization and placed under the psychiatric care of Dr. Dreyfuss (Daniel Kash).  With his recommendation and under vehement protest from the girls' aunt, Lucas and Annabel are given legal guardianship of Victoria and Lilly as long as they agree to reside in a special home the doctor has used to perform case studies.  To say the girls' behavior is strange is an understatement.  However, Victoria has retained much of her vocabulary from her earlier childhood and begins to show signs of normalcy.  Lilly remains just as animalistic as she was when she was found in the woods.  There is also something that is visiting the girls on a daily basis.  Something that Victoria has revealed during her hypnosis sessions with Dr. Dreyfuss.  Something dark and dangerous that has followed the girls out of the woods and will kill to protect them.  Something the two of them refer to as "Mama."  But will Lucas, Annabel, and Dr. Dreyfuss discover the secret behind Mama before it's too late to thwart her plans for Victoria and Lilly? 

Mama gets an "A" for creepiness.  Muschietti definitely knows how to set up a chilling atmosphere.  There are, however, some big plot holes and leaps of faith the audience is asked to take.  Items like, why would authorities keep a child's remains in an evidence box?  How did Uncle Lucas suddenly obtain a map to Mama's cabin while in the hospital?  Why would Lucas' brother ask him to save his daughters in a dream when he was the one who attempted to kill them in the first place?  There are other things, too.  I know I didn't fall asleep.  I don't think I missed anything.  There are just many convenient coincidences that move the plot along to its conclusion.  I guess you can say this of many films, but parts of Mama are very contrived. 

But Mama does offer good things, too.  There is the aforementioned creepiness of the film.  Mama is a terrifying entity, twisted and animalistic.  Her ghostly face always seems to be in a perpetual shriek.  And when she moves?  Faster than a blink!  Mama's CG is incredible.  What I found more impressive, however, was the acting abilities of the child stars.  Both Megan Charpentier (Victoria) and Isabelle Nelisse (Lilly) display an incredible range for such a young age, particularly Charpentier who actually pulls off being a lost, tortured soul.  Even the younger children portraying Victoria and Lilly at three and one year old are decent.  The child actors here give me even greater cause to be angry with George Lucas for forcing Jake Lloyd on an unsuspecting public.  But, I digress.  The ending is bittersweet.  You can say that all got a little of what they wanted, even Mama.  You have to see it to understand.

Where does Mama rank in the recent pantheon of horror movies?  In my opinion, Sinister is still king here.  However, Mama does give the audience enough creeps and chills to entertain despite some plot holes in the script.

The Dark Lord of the Sith says:

***1/2 stars

Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee. Buy this on DVD when released!
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here. Get this DVD goes without saying