Movie Review on ‘silver Lining Playbook’

Stereotypical romantic movies are normally like: A handsome man and a beautiful woman fall in love with each other. Then they separated for a while because of some reasons like misunderstandings, class disparity or third party. At last they still get together again unbelievably and live happily ever after. Movies like “Chalet girl” or “The Lucky One” would be good examples of stereotypical movies. If you are tired of the stereotyped romantic film, you want to watch some different romantic movies. The movie “Silver Lining Playbook” directed by David O. Russell would be a good choice. The movie narrates Pat who can not control his temper after he finds out his wife is cheating on him. When he gets out from the mental health facility to home, he still cannot gives up on his ex-wife. He meets Tiffany whose husband just died. They have an odd friendship and gradually they fall in love with each other. “Silver Lining Playbook,” a non-cliché romantic movie for young adults who are looking for a relaxing and different romantic movie or who are stuck by their ex in life, has innovative movie setup, unusual romance element, and realistic scenes.

Normally, in the cliché romantic movie setup, there is always a handsome boy and beautiful girl appearing in the movie, such as Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst in “Elizabeth Town.” “Silver Lining Book” features slightly fat Bradley Cooper and smoky eyed Jennifer Lawrence. Instead of two protagonists’ wonderful first meeting scenes like a man and a woman attract to each other in a night club from “About Time” or love at first sight from “500 days of summer,” Pat and Tiffany’s first meeting is an awkward confrontation. Pat warns Tiffany to keep distance from him by emphasizing he is getting his wife back and he asks Tiffany inappropriate questions about how his husband dies which irritates Tiffany. Even though their first meet is awkward, they stare at each other like they want to know each other better. This suggests they have chemistry between each other. Normally, two protagonists in a cliché romantic movie will have an encounter at a romantic place such as falling leaves from the scene in “Liberal Arts” and top of the Empire State Building from the scene in “Sleepless Seattle.” Pat and Tiffany meet in their friend and sister’s house which is not a romantic place at all, and they have an uncomfortable conversation. The Different movie set up attracts the audiences’ interests, because it’s different from other movies’ setups, and they may be curious about how Pat and Tiffany get along with each other in the movie later.

Not only does the different movie setup in “Silver Lining Playbook” attract audience, but also the unusual romantic element. Unlike some cliché romantic scenes as kissing in rain from “The notebook” or finding the lover in the airport crazily from “Love Actually,” “Silver Lining Playbook” is filled with scenes of quarreling, yelling, and fighting. These are the romantic elements in the whole movie. Pat and Tiffany get to know each other’s emotional weaknesses through their fights. There’s one time they had a huge fight when Tiffany opens up to Pat and tells him her past. Pat asked Tiffany for more details but he judges Tiffany’s licentious past. Tiffany gets mad and yells at Pat: “You may not experience the shit that I did, but you loved hearing about it, didn’t you? You are afraid to be alive. You are afraid to live. You are a hypocrite. You are conformist. You are a liar.” She screams on the street saying that Pat is harassing her when Pat is trying to calm her down. When the police come, Pat goes panic by thinking about his and his ex-wife’s wedding song which always makes Pat fretful. Tiffany comforts Pat: “Come here. What are you gonna do about that song? Huh? You gonna go your whole life scared of that song? It’s a song. Don’t make it a monster. Come on, breathe. There’s no song. There’s no song playing.” Tiffany gives Pat a lesson. She encourages Pat to face the real side of himself and to move on in his life. From many of their fight scenes, the audience may not find anything romantic about their quarrels, but audiences can think about it in another way. Tiffany is guiding Pat to accept the real him and move on in his life through their quarrels. She is trying to tell him he is no longer a man who still can not walk out from the marriage shadow and he needs to have a life. That’s why Tiffany lies to Pat about if he would have dance practice with her and finish the dance competition, she will give his letter to Nikki as a deal. Tiffany is the one who tries so hard to make Pat no longer miserable in himself, love, and life. She yells at him, argues with him, runs with him, sets up a white lie, and motivates him to move on in his life. “Silver Lining Book” shows that romance is not just hundreds of roses, the planned fireworks or anything like that, but it is a person helping another person to heal his/her heart and start a