Starring: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Chris Tucker, Jacki Weaver
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
It?s tough being a white American male these days: The world used to be his oyster, and now he?s chum.
Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper) makes a perfect martyr for these times. Misunderstood and largely out of sync with the rapid social changes taking place around him, Pat is trying to regain some sense of control in his life after spending time in a mental hospital.
When we first meet Pat in the passenger seat of his mother?s car as she picks him up, he seems like a pretty sweet guy ? if a tad moody and just the slightest bit compulsive.
Before long, we hit a wall of flashbacks that confront us with truth of Pat?s breakdown: He flew into a psychotic rage after finding his wife having sex with another man in the shower of the family home. He could not stop punching, and he nearly killed the interloper.
Now governed by a restraining order that forbids him any contact with his wife, Pat is desperately trying to obey the rules, but he?s still madly in love with the two-timer. He wants to see her, and we?re never sure what he?ll do in order to make that happen.
Pat is unpredictable and potentially violent, and that presents a significant challenge for any moviegoer accustomed to a meat-and-potato hero. He?s not going to look like your average knight in shining armour, but that?s not a huge problem for a director like David O. Russell.
Given to making movies that challenge standard archetypes, and particularly constructions of masculine identity (Three Kings, Spanking the Monkey, The Fighter), Russell is content to navigate the great divide between narrative expectation and cinematic ?reality? as he takes us through a Rocky-like voyage of redemption.
Seeking the smaller sparks in a story that could have easily plummeted into the volcanic pit of melodrama, Russell lets his characters? quirks run free and in turn fills the frame with all kinds of wonderful, wacky and frequently awkward moments.
Much of the good stuff comes through the supporting cast, headlined by Robert De Niro and featuring Jacki Weaver (an Oscar nominee for Animal Kingdom) as well as Chris Tucker, but the heavy lifting ? (in one case, literally) ?? comes from Cooper and romantic co-star Jennifer Lawrence.
Though Lawrence has cut her teeth as the spunky Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games, and racked up an Oscar nod for playing a tough teen in Winter?s Bone, she?s largely believable as the intellectual and sexual counterpart to Cooper.
Cast in the part of a boozing widow who has watched Pat from afar, Lawrence sinks her incisors into the meaty part of Tiffany.
It?s a chomp romp through myriad brands of dysfunction, much of it serious and somewhat disturbing, but thanks to Lawrence?s ability to convey potent, self-possessed chaos ? not to mention too much mascara and some bad hair tinting ? Russell?s romantic dynamo finds plenty of motion as the two outsiders find community in each other.
Of course, they don?t get along at the beginning and we?re forced to watch the slow, mutual seduction through a crazy mix of sports bookmaking, father-son silences and NFL fandom.
This ?real world? part of the movie is designed to take the pulse of middle, working-class America. De Niro?s character is a casualty of the 2008 crash, a retiree without a pension looking to hang on to his core identity as the Man of the House.
His wife is loyal and caring, and she does her best to prop up her crumbling husband by fulfilling all maternal and spousal expectations, but even she has a few surprises up her rolled sleeves.
The production design sometimes goes a little too far into the world of kitsch, but it matches the rest of the movie?s over-the-top mood ? which leads us to the one big flaw in this charming, menacing mess.
Russell is so desperate to bring a sense of authenticity to the mix, and he succeeds, but only on the darker side of the frame, when Cooper channels his inner Sean Penn and lets the violent edges poke through his oversized Eagles jersey.
Matching the jagged side of an explosive personality with the brightly coloured helium balloon of romance is a delicate operation, and while Russell pulls it off, we never feel entirely satisfied.
Cooper and Lawrence create a few sparks, but it?s from the fierce thespian friction ? not chemistry.
The goofy notes are where this movie gets the most mileage, with De Niro proving he has excellent comic skills once again and Cooper convincing us he can act without using his sexy physicality as an anchor.
Lawrence feels underused, despite the relatively big and complex female role she?s given. We could have seen a lot more of Tiffany, but this is really the man?s story ? because it may be a man?s world still, but it doesn?t look like it used to.
Source: http://o.canada.com/2012/11/20/more-to-sexy-bradley-cooper-in-silver-linings-playbook/
leah messer freedom riders 9th circuit court of appeals gisele bundchen tom brady randy travis arrested dickens greg kelly
No comments:
Post a Comment