Allow me to quickly
introduce myself: My name is Kara, and I live over at www.karaschatter.com . I have no
experience in the movie industry, other than watching and appreciating them. I
thought I would offer up my movie reviewing skills, or lack thereof, to The
Basement to give readers a female perspective on movies, new, old, good, and
bad.
When
I first saw the preview for Silver Linings Playbook, I wasn’t 100%
sold on the film. I’m not too sure what it was, but I wasn’t
immediately drawn to it. Eventually, I read the book - which I ended
up loving - so I thought I’d give the Oscar-nominated film a go.
I
was really looking forward to sitting down and enjoying the film. I
don’t know if it was because the book really got my hopes up or
something else, but the film was just “OK” for me.
For
those of you who haven’t read the book, it’s kind of a downer.
Not in the “It’s a bad book” way but in the, “It’s kind of
depressing and will make you look at life a different way,” way. I
went into the film kind of expecting the same thing, except it was
very, VERY different.
The
main character, Pat (played by the always chiseled Bradley Cooper),
suffers from bi-polarism and his mom (played by Jacki Weaver) busts
him out of the funny farm against doctors suggestions.
In the book,
the release brings some struggles between Pat and his father (played
by the always amazing Robert de Niro). Pat Sr. has a hard time
accepting his son, while in the film, he welcomes him with open arms.
In the book, there’s a lot of focus on football. I’m certain the
producers cut back on this for the film to gain a wider-range of
viewers. Football doesn’t exactly scream, “WATCH ME!” to female
audiences, and while I wouldn’t classify SLP as a chick-flick, I
think females are more drawn to it than males. (I find that if a
movie doesn’t have blood, guts, zombies, boobs, or Bruce Willis,
guys easily shrug a movie off.)
Anyway,
the film does keep some key elements from the book - The dance
competition, Pat’s determination to reconcile with his estranged
wife, and Pat Sr.’s superstitious love for the Philadelphia Eagles,
but I didn’t love how much they changed in regards to those
elements.
Don’t
get me wrong, the actors all did a really amazing job and did deserve
all of those awards nominations, and Jennifer Lawrence as Pat’s
equally unstable counterpart Tiffany was superb.
In
the end, I suggest you either watch the film OR read the book, but
not both. You’ll most likely be slightly disappointed in either
one, depending on the route you take. I’ve read on various review
sites that book-first folks are disappointed in the movie and
vise-versa.
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