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Silver Linings Playbook: Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper redefine “normal”

January 20, 2013 By

Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper cope with mental and emotional illness in Silver Linings Playbook. David O. Russell’s off-kilter, romantic dramedy beautifully captures their struggle and growth.

Tiffany (Best Actress Lawrence) is a young widow battling anxiety and depression. Pat (Cooper) is a bipolar former teacher with a failed marriage. He moves in with his parents after his release from a mental hospital.

Excelsior!

Negativity is Pat’s nemesis. He yearns for happy endings. Excelsior, the Latin word for “ever upward,” becomes his mantra. Cooper’s engaging character swings from glee to angst to mania. Pat fills his notebook with strategies to cope and succeed.

Lawrence is outspoken as the vulnerable Tiffany. Her life seems to be a mess. Dancing in the converted garage/studio where she lives, she’s free to be herself.

Both Pat and Tiffany are determined to find happiness. You might say they have “poor social skills.” With refreshing honesty and open hearts, they are deeply moving.

Winning is relative

Tiffany enlists Pat as her dance partner in a competition which they have no chance of winning. Lawrence embodies Tiffany’s love of dance and self-expression with spunky grace. Physical exercise helps many to manage anxiety and depression. Pat learns discipline and focus during their rehearsals.

Cheering them on are Pat’s dad (Robert De Niro), an obsessive compulsive gambler seeking a football buddy, and his salt-of-the-earth mom (Jacki Weaver). Pat’s middle-of-the-night rants test the Solitanos’ patience.

Chris Tucker stands out as Danny, Pat’s offbeat friend from the hospital. Anupam Kher plays the understanding Dr. Patel.

Screenplay sizzles

Russell’s outstanding screenplay is based on Matthew Quick’s novel Silver Linings Playbook. I wanted to stand up and cheer when Tiffany tells her “perfect” sister Veronica (Julia Stiles): “You love it when I have problems. Then you can be the good one!” John Ortiz plays Pat’s friend Ronnie, Veronica’s husband.

De Niro brings it as Mr. Solitano breaks down, confessing that he just wants to spend more time with his troubled son. Father and son learn to become more caring, loving men.

We’re all in this together

Tiffany finds peace by loving and forgiving herself, even her “crazy, sad shit.” She must accept that Pat may or may not be ready to fall in love again.

If Pat can forgive and let go of ex-wife Nikki (Brea Bee), the object of his obsession, he’ll be able to receive much more in life. He learns to embrace joy and pain.

Silver Linings Playbook beautifully captures the personal challenges of mental and emotional illness. The characters learn that “we’re all in this together” as they complement each others’ strengths and weaknesses.

Healing means living from the heart where there are no stereotypes. Pat and Tiffany learn to accept themselves and live authentically.

Silver Linings Playbook / Take Action

You can learn more and take action to support healing, gratitude, love, mental/emotional health and awakening via these resources:  Bernie Siegel, M.D.; Deepak Chopra, M.D.; Dr. Wayne W. Dyer; Project Forgive; The Cure Is; OWNTV Super Soul Sunday; CoreLight.

If you like Silver Linings Playbook, you might enjoy:  Winter’s Bone; X-Men: First Class; Limitless; The Cure Is.

 

Silver Linings Playbook   2012  /  R /  2 hours

Cast Overview: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Brea Bee, Anupam Kher, John Ortiz, Shea Whigham, Julia Stiles

Director:  David O. Russell

Genre:  Romantic Dramedy

 

 

Filed Under: Awaken, Character, Community, Compassion, Current Affairs, Forgiveness, Heal, Top Films, Transformation Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Beaver: Gibson seeks redemption as depressed toy exec

January 3, 2012 By

Mel Gibson bares his demons in The Beaver, the dark family drama about Walter Black’s unusual route to redemption from depression.

Gibson’s friend Jodie Foster directs and co-stars as his wife Meredith.

Troubled actor

Gibson’s alcoholism has been marked by bigoted rants and assaults on a former girlfriend. The film’s release was delayed to allow public outrage to cool.

Here you see the Gibson who delivered raw, poignant performances in The Man Without a Face and Conspiracy Theory, the gifted director of Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto.

Gibson’s contrition is tangible as self-conscious, shambling Walter finds a ratty hand puppet in a dumpster. The use of The Beaver is bizarre and clever. Walter dubs him a “prescription puppet” who speaks to and for him in a cockney accent while the man comes to life.

The Beaver speaks

“I’m The Beaver, Walter, and I’m here to save your goddamned life.” Walter is a husband, father and toy company CEO who has checked out.

Plagued by alcoholism and suicidal depression, his illness is generational. Gibson runs the gamut as Walter – vulnerable, withdrawn, submissive loser; effective CEO and sexual tiger; and raw, violent masochist.

Like John Nash in A Beautiful Mind, Walter exorcises his illness in his own way. He seems to battle his father’s demon too, hoping to spare his own sons a living hell.

Foster directs

The Beaver marks a return to the profound dramas (The Accused; Little Man Tate; Nell) that Oscar winner and director Foster is known for. She conveys grim dignity here, a muted, nervous mom unlike her espresso-driven characters in Panic Room and The Brave One.

Following her success in Taxi Driver, the legendary Foster won Best Actress for both The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs. She also received a Saturn Award for the sci-fi drama Contact.

Foster, who has two sons, directed Little Man Tate and Home for the Holidays, recently starring in Nim’s Island.

“I make personal films,” the director said in a recent interview with indieWIRE. “When you know that you’re going to be on something for two years and it’s going to be the story of your life and you have to wake up at three in the morning and have ideas…it’s an obsession. . . . it has to be something that speaks from an incredibly primal place.”

Facing despair

It was brave to make a film so sunk in everyday darkness and despair. Walter eschews self-help books, therapy and drugs. He stopped seeing his shrink a year ago. Only his youngest son Henry (Riley Thomas Stewart) shares a pure, open connection with his Dad. It’s he who gives Walter a toy brain.

Anton Yelchin (Like Crazy) plays cynical Porter Black who openly loathes his father. Porter sells term papers with great empathy. “I’m much better on paper,” he tells his friend Norah (Jennifer Lawrence).

Oscar-nominated Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) plays a sensual cheerleader and 4.0 student who needs Porter to ghost her valedictorian’s speech.

Crazy art

Norah has a secret passion – tagging. “I like to do it big and fast,” she says of her graffiti art. Like so many artists, she paints from a cloud of tragedy and loss. Vulnerable and honest, both teens embrace grief. “Crazy is pretending to be happy,” says Porter.

The Beaver tackles big issues – mental illness; life meaning, and honoring our weirdness to become who we truly are. Walter is even willing to leave his family in the quest for self-love. Finally Walter must realize that he is not alone.

Casting Gibson

Gibson was “the first person I thought of” to play Walter Black, Foster told The New York Times. His turmoils gave him great insight into the character. Gibson “has a very, very rare quality to have lightness, to maintain charm but still go to a darker place.”

Foster just completed her part in Roman Polanski’s Carnage, and is about to start work on Elysium, a sci-fi thriller with Matt Damon.

First-time screenwriter Kyle Killen develops his fresh idea and approach while challenging audiences to grow. Spot-on editing and beautiful production values make an enduring film that embraces dark monsters. (5 out of 5 stars)

If you like The Beaver, you might enjoy:  Win Win; City Island.

 

The Beaver     2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 39 min

Cast Overview:  Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, Cherry Jones, Riley Thomas Stewart

Director:  Jodie Foster

Genre:  Drama

Filed Under: Awaken, Character, Forgiveness, Heal, Healing - Traditional, Transformation Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Winter’s Bone: Sundance winner stars feisty Jennifer Lawrence

December 30, 2011 By

Winter’s Bone is an unsettling bad dream, a grim tale that becomes mythic. It features the must see performance of Kentucky-born Jennifer Lawrence (The Burning Plain).

Uncommon courage

In Ree Dolly, Lawrence plays a scrappy 17-year-old who shepherds her family on the brink of losing their home.

Winter’s Bone, which won Sundance’s Grand Jury Award, was nominated for four Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor (John Hawkes) and Best Writing (adapted screenplay). It also won Spirit Awards for best supporting male and female actors.

Poverty in the Ozarks

The film reveals “another America”: a land of poverty and ignorance, an Ozark mountain hell. The young adults of Ree’s world can escape this ghetto only by joining the Army, or by setting up a meth lab.

When drug-dealing Jessup jumps bail one day, he leaves the family home as collateral. The sheriff arrives. Unless Jessup can be found, the law wants to repossess the home where Ree lives with her catatonic mother and younger siblings Sonny and Ashlee (Isaiah Stone and Ashlee Thompson).

Ree decides to fight impending disaster. “I’ll find him,” she vows. Along the way, her worst enemies seem to be her father’s violent brother Uncle Teardrop (John Hawkes) and Merab (Dale Dickey), the wife of local crime boss Thump Milton.

Search for a missing father

Ree sets out on her odyssey with little emotion. Calmly she repeats to anyone who will listen – she needs to find her father’s whereabouts. Dead or alive, there is no blame. She aims only to save her family’s home.

Ree’s quest becomes her initiation. We reel in shock at what she is expected to do. Even the coldness of the hill folk’s criminal element thaws alongside the girl’s resolute stand.

Local residents served as actors. Director Debra Granik immersed herself in the culture for years before filming began. The film’s lighter moments include authentic Ozark folk singing and playing. Ree also teaches Sonny and Ashlee to count and shoot a rifle.

Lawrence’s next screen role will be in Jodie Foster’s dramedy The Beaver. (4 out of 5 stars)

If you like Winter’s Bone, you might enjoy:  Rabbit Hole.

Winter’s Bone 2010 / R / 1 hr, 40 min

Cast Overview: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Kevin Breznahan, Dale Dickey, Garret Dillahunt, Shelley Waggener, Lauren Sweetser

Director: Debra Granik

Genre: Drama

Filed Under: Awaken, Character, Compassion, Forgiveness, Heal, Learn & Grow, Youth Tagged With: , , , ,