Avis des critiques

The very title could not be clearer: we’re getting silver linings and happy endings whether we like it or not.

Easily dismissible as award season fodder, David O. Russell's SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK is a brilliantly constructed romantic comedy that is free of the genre's typical gimmickry... De Niro especially delivers a near-perfect performance as a Philly patriarch with anger management issues, and his comedic timing is so impressive that this one performance will elicit forgiveness for several years worth of poor role choices.

As a film about people processing pain and grappling with illness, Silver Linings Playbook is less insightful (and more convoluted) than an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, and, as a romance, it's shrill and aggressive.

Whatever emotional tension it offers is the same gleaned from any number of Hollywood romcoms that move from a punch to a kiss. Russell doesn’t need to make genuinely messy movies, but Silver Linings Playbook is a film about messy people that’s as neat as a pin.

The film moves in every sense of the word, navigating precarious tonal shifts between absurd comedy and visceral violence, while allowing space for moments of true tenderness. The unlikely blend of humor and mental illness comes off in no small part due to the impeccable cast.

The great strength of Russell's writing and direction resides in the way he consistently manages to retain a comic tone without losing touch with the characters' pains and anxieties... Russell involves us so closely in what we're watching that we become emotional participants. And that's because he cares for these people in a wholly unpatronising fashion.

Silver Linings Playbook isn't as audacious as it might have been in squeezing comedy out of desperate psychology, and it does finally imply that bipolarity can be cured by love and self-belief. But it's deliciously acted, smartly scripted, and Russell and cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi shunt the camera about so as to make a small story look like a big, brash, freewheeling one.

This is a date movie that doesn't offer the sophistication it thinks it does, but is as enjoyable and good-natured as the genre requires.

Lawrence is Silver Linings Playbook’s very own silver lining, the sole glittering element in a fug of cinematic flatulence.

As his follow-up to The Fighter, David O. Russell has delivered another crowd-pleaser that won't challenge the audience, but will leave them happy and entertained without having their intelligence insulted.

“Silver Linings Playbook,” the exuberant new movie from David O. Russell, does almost everything right.

Granted, "Silver Linings Playbook" isn't the deepest movie you'll see this year, and ultimately doesn't say anything new about how men and women relate. But Russell's film says it in a manner that is a true joy to watch. His films have always been a bit rough around the edges, with a bit of a sense of anarchy about them, but this is the director at his most focused.