English Film Club 03: Silver Linings Playbook (B1+)
- Alexander Werth
- Mar 23
- 4 min read
Vocabulary
1. Exasperating
Definition: Extremely annoying or frustrating.
Example: His constant interruptions were exasperating during the meeting.
2. Ditches
Definition: (Informal) Abandons or gets rid of something.
Example: The company ditched its old logo for a modern design.
4. Emphatically
Definition: In a forceful or strong way.
Example: He emphatically denied the accusations.
5. Gag
Definition: A joke or humorous moment, especially in films or shows.
Example: The movie relies too much on cheap gags.
6. Sombre
Definition: Dark, serious, or sad in mood.
Example: The film takes a sombre turn in the final act.
7. Deranged
Definition: Mentally disturbed or behaving irrationally.
Example: The character seems charming at first but later appears deranged.
Read:
Silver Linings Playbook: A Charming Romcom with a big "R" and a small "c"
It would have been hard to sell a romcom to me that stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, with Robert De Niro one of their fathers, and with Chris Tucker as a wacky side character. Especially one called "Silver Linings Playbook".
All of these things seem to be a recipe for an exasperating waste of two precious hours. Meet The Parents (also starring Robert De Niro as someone's father), for example, is a film that I despise passionately, and which has a similar formula to many others that have come out since the turn of the century.
But Silver Linings Playbook ditches the formula, and manages to charm you in so many ways that other romcoms don't.
For one thing it is, as we sometimes say, "a comedy with a small c", which means it is not forcefully and emphatically a comedy, and doesn't have some rule where there must be a "gag" every twenty seconds. The humour in it is more fluid and irregular. Sombre parts of the film are allowed to last a long time and properly affect us, and also mix with slightly amusing bits which are not laugh-out-loud and are not trying to be.
The humour is not sign-posted in the form of "jokes" and "gags", and none of the humour moments are over the top. In fact, different people will find different things in the film funny. Instead of gags, what Silver Linings Playbook has is many very realistic characters that are deranged in various ways and always doing something slightly strange or wacky, but which never do anything you wouldn't expect to see in real life.
I would also say it is romantic with a big 'R'. Pat and Tiffany are very convincing, and seem right for each other in every respect. Cooper and Lawrence do a great job of playing a kind of weird that makes them perfect for each other. The film even makes convincingly the case that their respective suffering, insanity, and disastrous histories, while making them poorly adapted to society at large, unlocks for them the capacity for a higher form of love which is based on profound camaraderie and free from the fakery and nonsense of the the relationships that surround the two. This is captured quite early on when Tiffany says to Pat
"We're not like them. We don't have to lie to each other."
There is an interesting theme throughout the film, namely the question of: who is actually crazier -- the people we label as such, or the broken society that we would call "normal"? And the film gives us cause to ask this in many ways. We also get a look at Pat's "madness" through his eyes. We empathise with him from the beginning and understand his reasons for doing all the things he does, even the crazy stuff. Even though he is genuinely a bit mad, Pat is our man -- we adore and root for him, and we would love to have him as a friend.
The obstacles to Pat and Tiffany's coming together are also genuinely formidable (unlike in meet the parents). Bradley begins the film obsessed with his adulterous wife, who he plans to win back. Tiffany, a widow who is notorious for her promiscuity, begins by propositioning Pat in a very emotionless and transactional manner. We are left finding it hard to imagine how the two might come together convincingly and in a way that pleases us, or if we even want them to. In the end they do, and we are happy. This is hard to achieve, and makes it a great love story.
I always delight in a good romcom. Bad ones somehow pain me more than bad movies of other genres, and I'm not entirely sure why. So good ones are like a cool hand on my fevered brow.
Lesson
Use of English Exercises:
Discussion
How did you like Silver Linings Playbook ?
Did you expect Pat and Tiffany to get together in the end?
Who is actually crazier - Pat and Tiffany, or all the others that surround them?
Which other romance films can you think of, how do they differ to Silver Linings Playbook in terms of story, characters, theme etc.
Further Discussion
Discuss the following quote by Jiddhu Krishnamurti: "It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
Discuss how having a purpose can help with trauma and mental illness.
Can love save someone who is suffering mentally, or must they save themselves first?
Which moments in the film made you laugh the most?
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