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Silver Linings Playbook: Funny Spin on Illness
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©Silver Linings Playbook starring Bradley Cooper & Jennifer Lawrence

Mental illness isn’t usually funny.
Yet, Silver Linings Playbook tries to find the funny in mental illness and picks up several awards along the way.

This romantic comedy-drama has already earned the People’s Choice Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival where it premiered, the Best Director, Actor and Supporting Actor Awards at the Hollywood Film Festival, and has five Independent Spirit Award nominations including Best Screenplay.

It’s Different

We’ve all been taught not to laugh at folks who are sick, especially those of us who serve in ministry. Sickness is no joke. So who goes and makes a film to get audiences to laugh at folks who are sick? Mind you, they are folks who are trying to get better through treatment and therapy, but still, the main character is bi-polar and is trying to cope without his meds.

It’s different storytelling though, if you think about it. Because the filmmakers know that laughter enables us to let our guards down. If we laugh and enter into the world of these characters, we’re no longer laughing at them, but identifying with them and rooting for them.

Silver Linings Playbook

The official film synopsis reads as follows:
Life doesn’t always go according to plan. Pat Solatano (Bradley Cooper) has lost everything — his house, his job, and his wife. He now finds himself living back with his father (Robert DeNiro) and mother (Jacki Weaver) after spending eight months is a state institution on a plea bargain. Pat is determined to rebuild his life, remain positive and reunite with his wife, despite the challenging circumstances of their separation. All Pat’s parents want is for him to get back on his feet-and to share their family’s obsession with the Philadelphia Eagles football team. When Pat meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a mysterious girl with problems of her own, things get complicated.

The film stars sidekick-turned-leading-man Bradley Cooper (The Hangover, Wedding Crashers, & 2011’s People Magazine Sexiest Man Alive), Academy Award nominee Jennifer Lawrence (Hunger Games, Winter’s Bone, X-Men: First Class), Academy Award winning actor and director Robert De Niro (Godfather II, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver), and comedian-turned-actor Chris Tucker (Rush Hour trilogy, Friday, Dead Presidents) whose talent could’ve been used more.

Twists and Turns

Making the film reportedly had just as many twists and turns as the film itself.

According to director David O. Russell (The Fighter, Three Kings), who reportedly once tried to choke George Clooney, he wrote the film for Vince Vaughn (Wedding Crashers) and Zooey Deschanel (New Girl). However, A-Listers Angelina Jolie and Mark Wahlberg wanted the parts, but ran into conflicts. Then, Jennifer Lawrence won the lead role off a video audition via SKYPE while filming her breakout blockbuster Hunger Games. And that’s just on the acting side.

On the production side, sadly, two producers passed away within month of each other after optioning the original novel in 2008. Academy Award winner Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa, Tootsie) and Academy Award winner Anthony Minghella (The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley), both died of cancer. Goodness!

A Father’s Love

The director, David, picked up the pieces and pressed forward, even writing a role in the film for his own teenage son Matthew who was originally diagnosed with autism as a child, but has since been diagnosed with a “bipolar-obsessive compulsive disorder hybrid”. David told The Hollywood Reporter that his son’s condition is “always a moving target and a challenge, but he’s doing great… I thought it would be nice for him — for both of us and the family — to have a movie that his stuff was a part of.”

What a father would do for his son. I thought about when Jesus teaches his disciples to be persistent in their prayers to their heavenly Father in Matthew 7:7-12, 9“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

If David O. Russell can give his son a role to help normalize his condition, how much more does our Father in heaven give to His children whom He loves?

One Caution, Maybe Two

Silver Linings Playbook is Rated R for language and some sexual content/nudity. Like much modern comedy, the language is definitely dicey. If profanity offends, this will offend you. This is not the Brady Bunch or the Cosby family. This is dysfunction at its peak.

Look at the trailer above and read a few reviews to figure out if this is your brand of comedy. Personally, I found the film lighthearted, but comedy is a very personal thing. What some people find funny, others do not.

For example, we recently screened the comedy This is 40 and did not laugh one time. My husband leaned over to me about 1/2 way through it and asked, how much longer? It was a whopping, abnormal 2 hours and 14 minutes. That’s a long time not to laugh at a comedy. But we talked to another couple who found the movie hilarious. They loved it. Go figure.

Please keep this in mind before you send me lots of emails questioning my funny meter or ask ‘how dare I suggest that laughing at mental illness is appropriate’. I promised you I would review the films we’ve screened and give you my opinion. I’d love to hear yours. Let me know what you think.

Onward & upward,
Naima

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