Silver Linings Playbook (2012), David O. Russell
- IMDB.COM: Rating: 8.0 (97,000+ votes); Metascore: 81 (45+ critics)
- ROTTEN TOMATOES: Tomatometer: 92% (183-199)
- TOP7 NEWSPAPERS: 91 AVG, three 4-star reviews
(K. Turan, Los Angeles Times; L. Schwartzbaum, Entertainment Weekly; M. Dargis, New York Times)
Serious candidate for Much-Ado-about-Nothing Film of the Year. Also a major wrinkle as to why did the top critics liked the Silver Linings Playbook better overall than Django Unchained, The Master or even Argo. Granted, they are professionals at what they do, while I only tend to have a professional approach, hopefully. Still, I cannot help myself but have a firm opinion that this movie, just like The Descendants before him, got blown way out of proportions. They’re both good films (therefore the three-stars grade for the Playbook), but the latter cannot be a serious rival of the above mentioned greats, not now, not ten years from now. It cost The Master its deserved nomination that won’t be kindly looked upon after some time. It also robbed some great performances of the actors and actresses from the other contenders. Jacki Weaver’s role is nothing more than a prolonged cameo, De Niro’s nomination is slap in the face of Samuel L. Jackson’s uneasy nevertheless amazing performance as Stephen, the "house ni*ger“ from Django. Copper is better than in his other roles, but is he John Hawkes good (The Sessions), Anthony Hopkins good (Hitchcock), or even Daniel Craig (Skyfall) good? No. Absolutely not. To make things worse, the Academy gave David O. Russell the nod rather than P.T. Anderson (The Master), Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) or – brace yourselves – Ben Affleck (Argo), just a guy who will eventually end up winning all the meaningful awards for directing in the time for Oscars, just not the Oscar itself. Remember Hitchcock’s „boy meets girl“ take for every movie’s underlay? This is the definitive product of that synopses. Chip in football frenzy and a dash of insanity and you’ve got the right recipe for the SLP.
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