Sunday, March 03, 2013

1813 - Silver Linings Playbook


I normally don't go heavily into details about new releases, but I feel compelled to do so here, so please if you haven't seen this there will be some spoilers below...

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So let's get it out of the way - there's some really great things about this film.  Jennifer Lawrence is pretty fucking fantastic as is Bradley Cooper - and DeNiro gives a performance we haven't seen in years from him.  The first two thirds of this are a really well layer and performed character drama - and then all of a sudden it takes a hard turn into becoming what felt like something else entirely.  Like it's lead, the film itself was bipolar with how much it shifted from character to plot motivation.  Like their final dance it started off so promising and just hit a wall near the end that left a bad taste in my mouth.  Tonally and structurally it felt like an entirely different film.  I'm not sure I buy that Tiffany fell in love with him or that he'd really earned it - it felt more like a plot device than anything.  I'm actually somewhat surprised at how well received the film is given the ending.  I'm going to have to dive into reviews for it to see if I was just crazy and missed something crucial or if I'm just a jerk for not getting caught up in it all.

Still worth seeing, absolutely, but hopefully erase the hype from your mind first.  My expectations going in were pretty high and that's never fair for any film.

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