Silver Linings Playbook (2012), directed by David O. Russell

This is the feel-good movie of the fall for slightly screwed up people.

And I mean that in a good way.

Silver Linings Playbook is a romance, it’s a happy-ending type, make your heart flutter film, but it’s also realistic, as in its characters have flaws (large ones), it doesn’t shy away from the struggle of life and it doesn’t sugarcoat anything. It feels “real” in a way the best romantic movies manage.

The film is really about mental illness. Bradley Cooper, in the first role I really respected him in, plays a man with serious issues that have lost him everything (marriage, job, freedom, trust). Jennifer Lawrence, in her first really mature role, plays a woman with just as many problems on her plate, also struggling to hold her sanity together.

The portrayal of mental illness in movies can be a hard line to walk, but, without being any sort of expert, I feel like Russell’s film does a good job of tackling it. Pat and Tiffany have diagnosable mental illnesses that could easily define their characters, but ultimately they are portrayed as people, not as illnesses.

The stereotypical association of violence and mental illness may not exactly be a step forward, but I believe showing these characters overcome their illnesses and go on to achieve success is. The film recognizes the importance of medication, it shows characters wanting to be healthy and working to get better, it aptly demonstrates the complexities of mental illness and all the ups and downs those with problems, and those that love them, go through.

Bradley Cooper turns in a what hopefully turns out to be a defining role for him. I’ve never really been a fan, but he is excellent in this one. He moves past his usual douchey frat boy persona and comes out with a performance that is mature, dynamic and compelling. He’s far from just a pretty face. The role requires him to hit a wide array of tones and he pulls it off with noticeable skill.

Also expanding her repertoire is Jennifer Lawrence. She first came to our attention in Winter’s Bone, an excellent film with her excellent performance. But she was playing a teenager, and has done so in pretty much every film since, despite being 22 now. This is her first role where she is decidedly an adult, and she is excellent in it.

It’s hard to say whether Lawrence will go on to become a well-respected actor (her upcoming films suggest she’s sticking with the Hollywood fluff for the time being) but Silver Linings Playbook gives a glimpse that it’s certainly possible. Cooper is the focus, but Lawrence brings a well-rounded, powerful performance that lets us see her fun, Hollywood star side, as well as that gritty, down-to-earth edge that first made us pay attention.

She’s also insanely beautiful in this movie, if you will allow me to indulge my crush for just a moment.

Okay, back to professionalism.

It should be mentioned too that Robert De Niro gives an impressive, interesting performance, the first for him in quite a long time. He gives a glimpse of what once made him the most talented film actor in America.

Russell’s film isn’t some gritty, anti-Hollywood marvel. Like most of his films, it has some edge but is still ultimately mainstream in tone, form and content. But it’s an excellent mainstream film, a real tear-in-your-eye inspirational type fare. And while films like that are usually eye-rollers, Silver Linings Playbook has enough talent, content and maturity to pull it off without it ever becoming insultingly simplistic or phony.

There’s some Oscar buzz around this one, and I think it’s deserved for the performances. The film is nothing revolutionary, however, and I think would be a weak choice, but for an enjoyable night out at the movies it’s hard to beat right now. And I mean that in a very complimentary way.

Silver Linings Playbook is in cinemas now.

House at the End of the Street (2012), directed by Mark Tonderai

My journey deep into the heart of horror continued this week in the cinema, with a catchup viewing of House at the End of the Street, a decidedly Hollywood-ie horror film that’s really more of psychological thriller than horror.

Not that that’s intrinsically a bad thing, but I have to say this one didn’t do it for me.

Jennifer Lawrence (full disclosure: I have an immense crush on Jennifer Lawrence) plays teenager Elissa (she’s not really a teenager), newly moved into the house next door to a murder house. She befriends the shy boy living there whose parents were the victims in aforementioned murder, at the hands of his sister.

Elissa, of course, feels sorry for the boy but her mum is suspicious of him. Anyway, this goes on for some time before things start to get weird, the sister reappears, the knives come out and the plot works really hard to try and blow our minds with twists and turns.

In fact the “twist” (SPOILER) at the end is very similar to the end of High Tension. Or Psycho. The end is pure Psycho, now that I think about it some more.

This movie didn’t work for me because it’s too long, spends too much effort really trying to get us to sympathize with these characters and has a weak payoff. It also never really brings the horror goods and with its PG-13 rating feels like it’s made for teenagers who haven’t ever seen any real slasher films. And that’s fine, but I was pretty bored, I must say.

I’m a fan of Lawrence, both as a red-blooded male and as a film critic. I think she is a talented actress. But the problem here is the movie doesn’t give her the space to do anything interesting. I liked some of the early bits where she’s established as a tough, no nonsense teen who has been through some hard times with her family. There’s one scene where some young dbag tries to take advantage of her and she isn’t having any of it.

I liked that, but by the time things get crazy I felt that had been abandoned in favour of her running around in a white tank top scared. Don’t get me wrong, not complaining, but I really wanted her to solve the situation using her smarts and bravado, and really it comes down to blind luck. She never gives up and is far from the screaming bimbo cliche native to the slasher film, but, I don’t know, I wanted more personality up there on the screen.

The fact there’s nothing inventive about the film at all is also a downfall. The story is only whatever, the characters really quite mundane and the “horror” part of it pretty standard stuff. A knife. A gun. A lights-out finale reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs. Some teenage drama stuff that never amounts to much.

I like horror films that follow the basics. The basics are what make horror work and I find when you mess with them too much the film suffers (Cabin in the Woods). But you have to get the basics right and put some passion into them. House at the End of the Street is a lifeless (no pun intended) affair that end up cold on the gurney (OK, maybe the pun is intended).

Onwards and forwards.

House at the End of the Street is in theatres now.

The Hunger Games (2012), directed by Gary Ross

Have you guys heard of this one? It’s some small indie film I think that opened on a few screens this past weekend. No big deal. Or it’s one of the biggest movies of the year that made a tonne of money at its midnight screenings on Friday and a tonne more over the rest of the weekend. I went to the theatre Thursday night to see something else and wondered why all these weird looking teenagers were lined up around the block. And then went ‘ohhhhhh right. Hunger Games.’

I try to make a point of following these cultural phenomena, even if I don’t understand them. Last year, for instance, I watched all the Twilight films over a weekend. I haven’t been the same since, but I did it all for you dear readers. It’s been the same with The Hunger Games. Yes, I have read all the books. No, I did not fall head over heels in love with them. I like the story but didn’t care for the writing and overall thought they were pretty good but not amazing. I expected even less from the movie.

I gotta say though, despite all the critical backlash, The Hunger Games is a pretty darn good movie. If you were to get a couple of drinks in me I might even go so far as to say it’s better then the book. But I’d say a lot of things at that point.

As far as a book to screen conversion goes, the movie, of course, trims a lot of the fat of the book, which may disappoint some. Gale gets a little short changed and is reduced to mainly a few reaction shots to the Hunger Games broadcast. Man looks good smiling in a crowd though, gotta say.

In general though I like what they kept. We get a nice build up to the actual games and a good, if not condensed, version of the lives of people in District 12 and our main characters. The film did a good job of bringing to life the world that was somewhat inadequately described and hard to visualize in the book. The games themselves are exciting but horrible. It’s an enjoyable movie to watch.

The film is a bit easy. I never felt challenged at any point. I never felt it was making any insightful comments on our own society and the dangers of totalitarian rule or on the relationship between humans and violence. I felt sorry for the tributes but because the violence was fairly glossed over I never got a full sense of the brutality of the games. Teenagers are hunting and killing other teenagers, but it still played out as an exciting movie, the very thing the story seems to be criticizing.

I like Jennifer Lawrence. As with everyone else, she blew me away in Winter’s Bone. It was exciting to see a young, mature, talented actor emerging. This is her big breakout role. Not a whole lot of people saw Winter’s Bone, so for them this, and X-Men: First Class, is their introduction to this very talented woman.

What makes this performance stand out though is that Katniss is not a flashy role. Throughout the Hunger Games series she is a serious young woman who has trouble garnering sympathy from people and refuses to try and make people like her.

Lawrence nails it. She hardly smiles throughout the whole movie but when she does it’s an event. And that’s the way it should be for this character. She is not your typical movie hero. She is divided and confused and damaged. She does not want to be in the situation that she is but is dragged into her role as rebel icon. You can see this conflict in Lawrence’s performance.

Here’s my main complaint with the movie, and it’s one you might hear out of me from time to time when I feel like harping on it: too much shaky, handheld camera work. This is seemingly the only way we know how to film action nowadays, and while I can appreciate the immediacy and chaos of it in the right situation, when I can’t tell what’s happening in the most important fight of the movie, that’s a problem.

At some points I felt a little motion sickness to be honest, such is the amount of jerky, swinging camera work in the film. At times it worked, but for the most part it was so overused it felt unnecessary. Do I really need the reaping to look like something someone shot on their cellphone and put up on YouTube? This is a proper movie here, use a tripod for heaven’s sake. I get the theoretical ideas behind this approach (immediateness, creating a sense of unease in the audience) but it’s a cheap and lazy move.

All told, however, I enjoyed The Hunger Games far more then I thought I would and I think the filmmakers did a better job then they are getting credit for. Could it have been better? Yes, absolutely. Could it have been worse? Very much so. The movie they did make is nothing revolutionary (pun intended) or anything we haven’t seen before (this is an exact remake of The Running Man, right? Kidding.), but still a heck of a good watch in a crowded movie theatre. I look forward to the sequels.

For a more detailed and passionate analysis please consult someone 14 years old.

The Hunger Games is in theatres now.