Taking Pages From The Silver Linings Playbook

Mondays are starting to feel more and more like Garfield cartoons, or Grumpy Cat gifs. Somebody tries to engage, and I just get all sorts of panicky and crazy-eyed and quickly try to bat them away with my paw hand.

Perhaps this is simply what it means to grow up.

God....I hope not.

I trust you all had a nice Thanksgiving. Mine was spent in the company of friends, enjoying bountiful delicious food and drink. I mean, the holiday itself has never been a big deal for me, but if it's an excuse to have dessert twice, and chase that with AK's famous pumpkin pie jello shots and an Irish coffee, then I'll be there with bells on.

 Thanksgiving means of course, the official launch of the Christmas season as well, which, combined with too many movies and too much time spent inside my own head, has meant a lot of moodiness. Let me start with the movie that I references last post, Silver Linings Playbook.

Silver Linings Playbook, or SLP as I'll abbreviate from here is NOT a romantic comedy. I think that much needs to be made clear. David O. Russell doesn't direct simple romantic comedies. In this case, SLP is an often funny, frequently uncomfortable to watch story of families dealing with mental illness in the form of depression, mania, and obsessive-compulsive....also there is Chris Tucker, football, some dancing, and people fall in love.
But I promise, it really isn't a romcom. Swears.

Sidenote: I just had the nicest conversation with THE SWEETEST man in our office. He's like a benevolent Uncle figure and has the best attitude on planet Earth and he just called me "a good egg." Awwww. Nice.

Ok. Back to SLP. So it's good. It really is. It's the best work I've seen from Bradley Cooper, and Robert DeNiro frequently made me feel like the walls were closing in...which is how we were supposed to react to him. It was NOT AT ALL fun to watch (there's a lot of poor decision making, followed by crying and screaming fights) but I admire the honesty of the storytelling for what it is. It doesn't pull punches when it comes to saying this family is really really screwed up, and they need to be medicated and in therapy. It's brutal. The joy of the film comes in the form of Jennifer Lawrence, who I find so likeable and spectacularly talented, I can hardly believe she's so young. Her performance is really outstanding, and I identified SO DEEPLY with her character - a woman who feels like she's gone off the rails with loss, who looks for answers in all the wrong places, and at the heart of things, is just trying to "read the signs" in order to find a happier life for herself and those she cares for. There were multiple scenes (I won't give anything away) that felt like I'd already lived myself, and reduced me to tears. What does it say to align myself so strongly with a character that everyone is calling "crazy" "lost" or "damaged?" I don't know. I honestly don't know. I dig that she's so flawed, she says all the wrong things and is blunt to a hilarious fault. But she's struggling - on and off medications (when they rattle off the depression meds at the dinner table, I was like "yep, yep yep.") wanting to feel like herself and not a grief zombie, but not really being able to get through the day without emotional cracks and serious self-doubt. But what makes her so great is that she knows she's troubled, but she's determined to make her life an enjoyable one. A tough see, but most certainly worthwhile.

Stay tuned for next time, when I discuss the hunt for the perfect Christmas tree, and how much I absolutely fucking hate both Chris Brown and Rihanna.