Off the Clock: "Silver Linings Playbook"

Tonight was a rare free night for me - no screenings I had to see, no articles I had to write. Instead of grocery shopping, cleaning my house or making plans with a friend,  I went to a movie (god help me). I saw "Silver Linings Playbook." 

Instead of my mini-notebook in hand, scribbling in the dark, I balanced an overpriced bag of popcorn in my lap, trying not to feel guilty for the munching that normally drives me insane in the theater. Tonight was all about passive enjoyment.

Well damn that David O. Russell ("The Fighter") for writing and directing a film that gave me no choice but to sit down at my computer, if only to say this: I just saw what could be my favorite movie of the year, and certainly my favorite romantic comedy in as long as I can remember. Here's my "off the clock" review.

"Silver Linings," based on a novel by Matthew Quick, has the warmth and wit  of a classic like "When Harry Met Sally," but instead of a sanitized, pre-9/11 New York City, where the characters' adorable neuroses drive the witty banter, we're in working class Philadelphia where feuds over football regularly lead to fights and mental illnesses get swept under the rug within a loving but misguided family. These people have real problems.

Pat (Bradley Cooper) has just returned home from a mental hospital after a violent outburst that broke up his marriage. Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) is a hard-edged young widow who uses sex to blow off her anger and grief. How this  film manages to be both a sweet romantic comedy that celebrates the freaks in all of us, and a portrait of how a family copes with mental illness, is why this film is a triumph and David O. Russell a genius.

I expect Oscar nominations for screenplay and directing and, perhaps, some recognition for Cooper (who I can finally see as something other than that hot guy you'd fall for at a bar, even though you knew he's bad for you) and Lawrence, who's yet to give me a reason not to trust her. 

This is the perfect dysfunctional family Thanksgiving movie. And it might make that annoying thing your dad always says feel like a loving gesture with comedic undertones instead of just, well, annoying.