Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

After his release from a mental facility, Pat (Bradley Cooper) moves back in with his parents (Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver) as he sets about trying to rekindle his relationship with his wife...who has a restraining order against him. Things get more interesting when Pat meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence),  a disturbed but intriguing young woman.

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In the early 1990s, Quentin Tarantino got a lot of attention for taking the gangster genre and moving it into the real world. We knew these characters already from countless slick 80s action flicks and John Woo shoot-em-ups, but through the miracle of Tarantino's writing and direction, we now saw them as real people we might run into on the street. Silver Linings Playbook accomplishes that same feat with the Will Ferrell/Danny McBride screwball comedy genre. So despite the fact that the film's climax centers on the results of a dance competition and an insanely large bet, you 100% believe that these are real people. It's pretty easy to do when you cast amazing actors like Robert De Niro and especially Jennifer Lawrence who is AMAZING! I also think the fact that director David O. Russell chose to apply his "realistic" (yet still stylized) aesthetic from The Fighter greatly helped as well. Unlike his other broad dysfunctional comedies (Flirting With Disaster and I ♥ Huckabees) with their bright images and simple staging, this film doesn't hold you at a distance. It brings you in for a nice warm hug. Excelsior!