Silver Linings Playbook

As my good friend would probably say---life in Pennsyltucky is a whole lot different experience.  Different from what?  In this case, sanity and living a happy go lucky life.  Our hero, if you want to call him that, Pat, is bipolar, obsessed with getting his wife, job, and life back after an extremely violent outburst eight months earlier.  This resulted in a restraining order and a stint in a mental hospital in Baltimore.  Obsession seems to be an underlying stream of consciousness in this quirky love story, whether it’s a football team, a failed or failing marriage, a perfect home, and dealing with grief in inappropriate ways.  This is not exactly your run of the mill rom-com.  Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper play off of all the “nut jobs” around them as if they’re perfectly normal and everyone else has the problem.  It’s brilliant and their performances are outstanding.  The soundtrack is great, the dancing, won't win any DWTS episodes, but better than I thought and there's a very funny bit you don't want to miss.  If I have to predict a winner, though, this would definitely be in the middle half of my choices…I give it a four out of the nine choices for best picture and a rating of 3.7 stars.  Excelsior!