SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

Sometimes Hollywood gets it right, and they certainly did with Silver Linings Playbook.  This movie elegantly combines drama, comedy, and romance with a realistic treatment of mental illness.

Pat (Bradley Cooper) just got released from a Baltimore mental institution in Baltimore, and he's living at home with his parents Pat Senior (Robert DeNiro) and Dolores (Jacki Waver).  Pat is seeing his therapist, using motivational techniques ("excelsior!"), getting in shape, and trying to see the silver lining in everything.  Unfortunately, he's still not taking his medicine, he's still easily angered, and he's convinved that he can restart his marriage happily with Nikki -- even though her affair is what triggered his breakdown and she since got a restraining order against him.

Things change, maybe, when Pat meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a friend of a friend.  Tiffany has her own share of issues and problems, from her husband's recent death to her constant abrasiveness to a bout of workplace nymphomania.  Tiffany keeps bumping into Pat when he's out jogging, and eventually she makes him an offer: She'll get a letter to Nikki -- if Pat agrees to be her dance partner in an upcoming competition.  There's also Pat Senior's obsession with the Philadelphia Eagles, his job as a bookie, and his dream of opening a restaurant; Pat's friend Ronnie (John Ortiz), who seems to a great upwardly mobile life with a great house, big job, and beautiful wife Veronica (Julia Stiles) -- but who feels tremendous pressure and stress; and for comic relief there's Danny (Chris Tucker), a buddy of Pat's from the institute who keeps showing up and getting taken back to the institute.

Silver Linings Playbook works thanks to a variety of factors.  The cast is terrific all around.  It's easy to see why Jennifer Lawrence: She makes Tiffany confrontational, vulnerable, appealing, off-putting, and with possibly as many issues as Pat has.  Bradley Cooper shines as Pat, who's "undiagnosed bipolar disorder" is thoroughly believable, as his character's laser-like focus on restoring his marriage is self-delusional and leading him to ignore Tiffany (he leaves a dinner with her early to write a letter to his ex-wife).  And the supporting cast does very well too.

What may distinguish this movie from so many others is its quite realistic treatment of mental illness -- and its frequency.  While Pat may be the only one who was in a mental institution, mental problems abound.  Pat Sr. has OCD, believed his beloved Eagles win or lose based on who's watching the game and where they sit, and was banned from Eagles games for attacking a fan.  Tiffany seems like she needs help as much as anyone else, and even Ronnie --who is upwardly mobile, bragging about having an iPod dock in every room -- stresses out and has a unique way of releasing his anger and frustration.  It's all believable, accurate, and quite a revelation for a movie to tackle this sort of subject without either making it comic or quirky.

Silver Linings Playbook does take a slightly more traditional path with its happy ending (revolving around a parlay bet), but it's a small bit of cliche in a movie that achieves so much.

Overall grade: A
Reviewed by James Lynch

Stardust (2007)

Stardust may be the first true fairy tale of the summer movies. Based on Neil Gaiman's novel, this movie blends fantasy, action, humor, romance to create a very original world (if not plot).

About 150 years ago, the English town Wall contained a brick wall that keeps in a magical universe called Stormhold. A man wandered in, had a dalliance with a local woman (who claimed to be a princess captured by a witch), and nine months later his son is dropped off at his doorstep.

We jump ahead 18 years, when the baby is now a young man named Tristan (Charlie Cox). He is a poor, imaginative lad that is enraptured by the beautiful-but-vain Victoria (Sienna Miller). She, alas, is about to be proposed to by the handsome, wealthy, popular Humphrey (Henry Cavill). When Tristan and Victoria see a falling star land behind the Wall, Tristan promises to bring it to her. With the help of some magic items left to him by his mother, Tristan goes to the star -- only to find it is a beautiful young woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes). She agrees to travel with him to Victoria, and afterwards he'll return her to the sky.

But others are after Yvaine. A trio of witches, led by Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), want to cut out the star's heart to give them youth. Further, before the King of Stormhold (Peter O'Toole) died, he proclaimed that only the heir who found a magic ruby would be king; and that ruby somehow brought Yvaine to Earth, so she wears it. There are also assorted other characters, including a billy goat turned into a human, the greedy Ferdy the Fence (played by Ricky Gervais), and Captain Shakespeare (Robert DeNiro), the flying ship captain who has a very secret side.

Stardust is very well done. There aren't many dimensions to the characters, but all the actors have a lot of fun with their roles. And while there are very conventional story elements (as the young, good-looking Tristan and Yvaine bicker, it's very clear what their fates will be) there are plenty of imaginative touches: the starlike aspects of Yvaine, the bazaar of wonders, the magic of the witches (including Lamia's signs of aging with each spell cast). In a summer filled with innumerable sequels, Stardust is a magical breath of fresh air.

Overall Grade: A-

Reviewed by James Lynch

Searching For Bobby D (2005)

Searching For Bobby D is an indie film, about a bunch of Brooklyn twenty somethings and their quest to shoot a film. The viewer gets the impression that this is more than a little autobiographical. We start in the neighborhoods of Brooklyn as these aspiring actors go on casting calls, and only can get jobs as extras on mob movies. As an aside, this is probably true, as a coworker, who is Italian, does this in the city, and he got picked a few times for The Sopranos, and Law and Order as an extra gangster- and never anything else. Anyway, getting back to the film at hand, the gang concludes that the best way for them to be in a film is to make it themselves, like Robert DeNiro, hence the film's title. While so far we were off to a good start, interspersed with authentic Brooklyn locations, like the Spumoni Gardens, we only go down from here.

The boys end up in Pennsylvania with a variety of schemes to raise the money to finance their cinema endeavors. They range from impersonating mobsters to collect "shake down" payments, to encouraging the townsfolk to buy parts. They shouldn't have put the effort into collecting the funds, as Searching For Bobby D goes absolutely nowhere from here as the plot is set adrift without a paddle.


While I would love to support an independent film, Searching For Bobby D needed a more engaging story line for starters. While the beginning had some promise, and the acting wasn't dismal, I'm still recommending to search for a different film as this one never actualizes its potential.

Overall Grade: C-

--Jonas

The Good Shepherd (2006)

If you want as much star power as any of the Ocean's films, than The Good Shepherd should be on your list. This film features performances by William Hurt, Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, Robert De Niro (who also directs it), and even a cameo by Joe Pesce.

The main protagonist played by Damon is a CIA agent. The crisis centers around a leak in the agency that allowed Cuba's Castro to squash the American backed rebels during the Bay of Pigs incident. To get to the source of the leak, we are taken on a multidecade journey. This starts from before World War II, and shows us how Damon got recruited for the OSS (Office of Strategic Services- the forerunner of the CIA during WWII). We also journey on through the end of the war, and into the Cold War, and the formation of the CIA.


The Good Shepherd tips the scales at a little under three hours, so it's definitely on the long side. It is also a little confusing at times as we start in the 60's, and then concurrently run the background story minced into the current crisis. Not helping either is that there are many characters, across many years, and many look similar. Seriously, couldn't at least one or two of them have something other than a buzzcut and brown hair? Still, this long film held my attention because it is the kind of epic filmmaking that Hollywood only rarely undertakes these days. The locations were very real, the costumes were excellent, and the props were all vintage. This type of film would make the Golden Age of Hollywood proud.

Matt Damon really turns in outstanding performance in The Good Shepherd. When you've got a spare three hours of undivided attention, grab some popcorn and enjoy a big budget film that only rarely gets made these days.

Overall Grade: A-