Pat is curiously confident & upbeat for a man just released from a mental hospital & under a restraining order from his wife. That"s because he"s determined khổng lồ repair the damage he"s done to his life & surprise everyone by moving ever onward and upward. His motto is, "Excelsior!" What stage of bipolar disorder would you guess he"s in?
At the top of his priority danh sách is rebuilding his marriage with his wife; after they split, he beat up her new boyfriend, but what"s past is past. Pat (Bradley Cooper) assures his parents, Pat Sr. Và Dolores (Robert De Niro & Jacki Weaver), that all will be well. They"re not so sure. One of the charms of "Silver Linings Playbook," the screwy new comedy by David O. Russell, is how Dolores is a sane and caring woman và has had long experience in dealing with compulsive behavior, because her husband is a fanatic fan of the Philadelphia Eagles. Having been banned from the Eagles" stadium for fighting, Pat Sr. Now focuses uneasily on his TV set, convinced that the Eagles will win only if his several superstitions are fulfilled.
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Pat Jr. In desperation is drawn toward Tiffany (2010 Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence), a young widow in the neighborhood. Lawrence appears here much transformed from the woman we saw in "Winter"s Bone" and "The Hunger Games." Still only 22, she looks softer, sweeter và somehow prettier than before, yet she plays Tiffany as all edges & elbows, who can understand Pat because she"s crazy herself. People call her a slut, & she agrees. She"s pissed off about Pat because he continues to lớn obsess about his ex-wife — và also because much of her value khổng lồ him is that"s she"s still in contact with the other woman.
In supporting roles, we meet Danny (Chris Tucker), Pat"s fellow patient at the hospital, and Dr. Cliff Patel (Anupam Kher), his shrink. Danny"s worried that Pat"s off his meds. Dr. Patel plays an increasingly common type in American movies, the Indian immigrant who seems khổng lồ embody certain stereotypes & then is revealed khổng lồ be completely assimilated.
Tiffany thinks she & Pat should have sex. Pat objects. He doesn"t want khổng lồ be unfaithful to lớn his ex-wife. Tiffany"s eyes narrow. We realize Pat doesn"t have a chance. This all builds up into a classic screwball comedy situation in which two bets are inspired — one involving an Eagles-Cowboys game và the other involving a ballroom dancing contest that Tiffany has forced Pat khổng lồ join her in with a khung of emotional blackmail.
How these bets play out I will, of course, not hint. I will chú ý that Pat, in keeping with family tradition, gets in trouble at the trò chơi for fighting. Don"t you sometimes wish movies watched other movies? Imagine Pat running into the Patton Oswalt character from "Big Fan." How cool would that be?
I love actors. I"ve been on an almost lifelong journey with Robert De Niro, và feel intimately familiar with him as an actor (not as a person). Here his work unobtrusively charmed my socks off. He"s harmlessly obsessed with the Eagles, gratefully in love with his wife and cluelessly supportive of his son, who he doesn"t realize is an apple who has fallen very close to the tree.
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One of the ingenious & sort of brave accomplishments of Russell"s screenplay (inspired by a novel by Matthew Quick) is the way it requires both father và son to lớn face and giảm giá khuyến mãi with their mental problems & against all odds finds a way to do that through both an Eagles game and a dance contest. We"re fully aware of the plot conventions at work here, the wheels và gears churning within the machinery, but with these actors, this velocity & the oblique economy of the dialogue, we realize we don"t often see it done this well. "Silver Linings Playbook" is so good, it could almost be a terrific old classic.
Foreign
Drama
Comedy
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.
A new york Times bestseller, The Silver Linings Playbook was adapted into the Oscar-winning movie starring Bradley Cooper & Jennifer Lawrence. It tells the riotous and poignant story of how one man regains his memory & comes khổng lồ terms with the magnitude of his wife"s betrayal. During the years he spends in a neural health facility, Pat Peoples formulates a theory about silver linings: he believes his life is a movie produced by God, his mission is to become physically fit and emotionally supportive, và his happy ending will be the return of his estranged wife, Nikki. When Pat goes to live with his parents, everything seems changed: no one will talk lớn him about Nikki; his old friends are saddled with families; the Philadelphia Eagles keep losing, making his father moody; & his new therapist seems khổng lồ be recommending adultery as a khung of therapy. When Pat meets the tragically widowed và clinically depressed Tiffany, she offers to lớn act as a liaison between him and his wife, if only he will give up watching football, agree to perform in this year"s Dance Away Depression competition, và promise not to tell anyone about their "contract." All the while, Pat keeps searching for his silver lining. In this brilliantly written debut novel, Matthew Quick takes us inside Pat"s mind, deftly showing us the world from his distorted yet endearing perspective. The result is a touching và funny story that helps us look at both depression and love in a wonderfully refreshing way.
Product Details
In the six months that followed his leaving teaching & the Philadelphia area, Matthew Quick
Read an Excerpt
Chapter One
An Infinite Amount of Days Until My Inevitable Reunion with Nikki
I don’t have to look up khổng lồ know Mom is making another surprise visit. Her toenails are always pink during the summer months, và I recognize the flower kiến thiết imprinted on her leather sandals; it’s what Mom purchased the last time she signed me out of the bad place và took me khổng lồ the mall. Once again, Mother has found me in my bathrobe, exercising unattended in the courtyard, and I smile because I know she will yell at Dr. Timbers, asking him why I need to be locked up if I’m only going khổng lồ be left alone all day. “Just how many push-ups are you going khổng lồ do, Pat?” Mom says when I start a second set of one hundred without speaking to lớn her. “Nikki—likes—a—man—with—a—developed—upper—body,” I say, spitting out one word per push-up, tasting the salty sweat lines that are running into my mouth. The August haze is thick, perfect for burning fat. Mom just watches for a minute or so, & then she shocks me. Her voice sort of quivers as she says, “Do you want lớn come home with me today?” I stop doing push-ups, turn my face up toward Mother’s, squint through the white noontime sun—and I can immediately tell she is serious, because she looks worried, as if she is making a mistake, và that’s how Mom looks when she means something she has said and isn’t just talking lượt thích she always does for hours on over whenever she’s not upset or afraid. “As long as you promise not to lớn go looking for Nikki again,” she adds, “you can finally come trang chủ and live with me & your father until we find you a job và get you phối up in an apartment.” I resume my push-up routine, keeping my eyes riveted khổng lồ the shiny đen ant scaling a blade of grass directly below my nose, but my peripheral vision catches the sweat beads leaping from my face to the ground below. “Pat, just say you’ll come trang chủ with me, and I’ll cook for you and you can visit with your old friends & start to lớn get on with your life finally. Please. I need you to want this. If only for me, Pat. Please.” Double-time push-ups, my pecs ripping, growing—pain, heat, sweat, change. I don’t want lớn stay in the bad place, where no one believes in silver linings or love or happy endings, and where everyone tells me Nikki will not like my new body, nor will she even want to see me when apart time is over. But I am also afraid the people from my old life will not be as enthusiastic as I am now trying to lớn be. Even still, I need lớn get away from the depressing doctors and the ugly nurses—with their endless pills in paper cups—if I am ever going khổng lồ get my thoughts straight, and since Mom will be much easier lớn trick than medical professionals, I jump up, find my feet, & say, “I’ll come live with you just until apart time is over.” While Mom is signing legal papers, I take one last shower in my room và then fill my duffel bag with clothes và my framed picture of Nikki. I say goodbye to lớn my roommate, Jackie, who just stares at me from his bed lượt thích he always does, drool running down off his chin lượt thích clear honey. Poor Jackie, with his random tufts of hair, oddly shaped head, và flabby body. What woman would ever love him? He blinks at me. I take this for goodbye and good luck, so I blink back with both eyes—meaning double good luck lớn you, Jackie, which I figure he understands, since he grunts và bangs his shoulder against his ear lượt thích he does whenever he gets what you are trying to tell him. My other friends are in music relaxation class, which I do not attend, because smooth jazz makes me angry sometimes. Thinking maybe I should say goodbye to lớn the men who had my back while I was locked up, I look into the music-room window & see my boys sitting Indian style on purple yoga mats, their elbows resting on their knees, their palms pressed together in front of their faces, and their eyes closed. Luckily, the glass of the window blocks the smooth jazz from entering my ears. My friends look really relaxed—at peace—so I decide not to interrupt their session. I hate goodbyes. In his trắng coat, Dr. Timbers is waiting for me when I meet my mother in the lobby, where three palm trees lurk among the couches and lounge chairs, as if the bad place were in Orlando & not Baltimore. “Enjoy your life,” he says lớn me—wearing that sober look of his—and shakes my hand. “Just as soon as apart time ends,” I say, & his face falls as if I said I was going to kill his wife, Natalie, và their three blondhaired daughters—Kristen, Jenny, and Becky—because that’s just how much he does not believe in silver linings, making it his business khổng lồ preach apathy và negativity và pessimism unceasingly. But I make sure he understands that he has failed khổng lồ infect me with his depressing life philosophies—and that I will be looking forward lớn the over of apart time. I say, “Picture me rollin’” to lớn Dr. Timbers, which is exactly what Danny—my only đen friend in the bad place—told me he was going khổng lồ say to lớn Dr. Timbers when Danny got out. I sort of feel bad about stealing Danny’s exit line, but it works; I know because Dr. Timbers squints as if I had punched him in the gut. As my mother drives me out of Maryland & through Delaware, past all those fast-food places & strip malls, she explains that Dr. Timbers did not want to let me out of the bad place, but with the help of a few lawyers và her girlfriend’s therapist—the man who will be my new therapist—she waged a legal battle và managed khổng lồ convince some judge that she could care for me at home, so I thank her. On the Delaware Memorial Bridge, she looks over at me and asks if I want to lớn get better, saying, “You bởi vì want khổng lồ get better, Pat. Right?” I nod. I say, “I do.” And then we are back in New Jersey, flying up 295. As we drive down Haddon Avenue into the heart of Collingswood—my hometown—I see that the main drag looks different. So many new boutique stores, new expensive-looking restaurants, and well-dressed strangers walking the sidewalks that I wonder if this is really my hometown at all. I start khổng lồ feel anxious, breathing heavily like I sometimes do. Mom asks me what’s wrong, và when I tell her, she again promises that my new therapist, Dr. Patel, will have me feeling normal in no time. When we arrive home, I immediately go down into the basement, và it’s lượt thích Christmas. I find the weight bench my mother had promised me so many times, along with the rack of weights, the stationary bike, dumbbells, and the Stomach Master 6000, which I had seen on late-night television and coveted for however long I was in the bad place. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” I tell Mom, & give her a huge hug, picking her up off the ground and spinning her around once. When I put her down, she smiles and says, “Welcome home, Pat.” Eagerly I go to work, alternating between sets of bench presses, curls, machine sit-ups on the Stomach Master 6000, leg lifts, squats, hours on the bike, hydration sessions (I try to lớn drink four gallons of water every day, doing endless shots of H2O from a shot glass for intensive hydration), & then there is my writing, which is mostly daily memoirs like this one, so that Nikki will be able to read about my life và know exactly what I’ve been up to since apart time began. (My memory started khổng lồ slip in the bad place because of the drugs, so I began writing down everything that happens khổng lồ me, keeping track of what I will need khổng lồ tell Nikki when apart time concludes, lớn catch her up on my life. But the doctors in the bad place confiscated everything I wrote before I came home, so I had khổng lồ start over.) When I finally come out of the basement, I notice that all the pictures of Nikki và me have been removed from the walls và the mantel over the fireplace. I ask my mother where these pictures went. She tells me our house was burglarized a few weeks before I came trang chủ and the pictures were stolen. I ask why a burglar would want pictures of Nikki and me, & my mother says she puts all of her pictures in very expensive frames. “Why didn’t the burglar steal the rest of the family pictures?” I ask. Mom says the burglar stole all the expensive frames, but she had the negatives for the family portraits và had them replaced. “Why didn’t you replace the pictures of Nikki và me?” I ask. Mom says she did not have the negatives for the pictures of Nikki and me, especially because Nikki’s parents had paid for the wedding pictures & had only given my mother copies of the photos she liked. Nikki had given Mom the other non-wedding pictures of us, và well, we aren’t in cảm ứng with Nikki or her family right now because it’s apart time. I tell my mother that if that burglar comes back, I’ll break his kneecaps and beat him within an inch of his life, & she says, “I believe you would.” My father & I bởi not talk even once during the first week I am home, which is not all that surprising, as he is always working—he’s the district manager for all the Big Foods in South Jersey. When Dad’s not at work, he’s in his study, reading historical fiction with the door shut, mostly novels about the Civil War. Mom says he needs time to lớn get used to my living at trang chủ again, which I am happy to give him, especially since I am sort of afraid to talk with Dad anyway. I remember him yelling at me the only time he ever visited me in the bad place, và he said some pretty awful things about Nikki & silver linings in general. I see Dad in the hallways of our house, of course, but he doesn’t look at me when we pass. Nikki likes to read, and since she always wanted me lớn read literary books, I start, mainly so I will be able khổng lồ participate in the dinner conversations I had remained silent through in the past—those conversations with Nikki’s literary friends, all English teachers who think I’m an illiterate buffoon, which is actually a name Nikki’s friend calls me whenever I tease him about being such a tiny man. “At least I’m not an illiterate buffoon,” Phillip says khổng lồ me, & Nikki laughs so hard. My mom has a library card, and she checks out books for me now that I am home and allowed to lớn read whatever I want without clearing the material with Dr. Timbers, who, incidentally, is a fascist when it comes to book banning. I start with The Great Gatsby, which I finish in just three nights. The best part is the introductory essay, which states that the novel is mostly about time & how you can never buy it back, which is exactly how I feel regarding my toàn thân and exercise—but then again, I also feel as if I have an infinite amount of days until my inevitable reunion with Nikki. When I read the actual story—how Gatsby loves Daisy so much but can’t ever be with her no matter how hard he tries—I feel like ripping the book in half và calling up Fitzgerald & telling him his book is all wrong, even though I know Fitzgerald is probably deceased. Especially when Gatsby is shot dead in his swimming pool the first time he goes for a swim all summer, Daisy doesn’t even go to his funeral, Nick and Jordan part ways, & Daisy ends up sticking with racist Tom, whose need for sex basically murders an innocent woman, you can tell Fitzgerald never took the time to look up at clouds during sunset, because there’s no silver lining at the over of that book, let me tell you. I vị see why Nikki likes the novel, as it’s written so well. But her liking it makes me worry now that Nikki doesn’t really believe in silver linings, because she says The Great Gatsby is the greatest novel ever written by an American, & yet it ends so sadly. One thing’s for sure, Nikki is going to be very proud of me when I tell her I finally read her favorite book. Here’s another surprise: I’m going lớn read all the novels on her American literature class syllabus, just to make her proud, to lớn let her know that I am really interested in what she loves and I am making a real effort to lớn salvage our marriage, especially since I will now be able khổng lồ converse with her swanky literary friends, saying things like, “I’m thirty. I’m five years too old lớn lie to lớn myself and call it honor,” which Nick says toward the over of Fitzgerald’s famous novel, but the line works for me too, because I am also thirty, so when I say it, I will sound really smart. We will probably be chatting over dinner, and the reference will make Nikki smile and laugh because she will be so surprised that I have actually read The Great Gatsby. That’s part of my plan, anyway, to lớn deliver that line real suave, when she least expects me to “drop knowledge”—to use another one of my đen friend Danny’s lines. God, I can’t wait. Excerpted from The SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK by Matthew Quick
