Behind Every Dark Cloud

 

There’s a problem with happiness – you can’t have it all the time. The message out there in the world however seems to be the exact opposite.

As a society, we chase any and every opportunity that will grant us a marvelous feeling of peace and contentment and when we don’t find it, we are unhappy. We seem to forget that loneliness, failure, despair and anguish is the other, often more true, flipside to the coin.

What we try to do, is to numb our pain. In fact, if we don’t have to deal with it, even better. Almost as if nothing in life should hurt. No. Pain is painful, loneliness suck, being rejected hurts and having your wife or husband cheat on you with a colleague can be emotionally crushing to most.

When you have to face life’s crises on top of being bi-polar too, things might seem even more severe, which in turn can make it even more, dare one say - interesting.

Patrick (Bradley Cooper) has just been released from a mental institution after being sentenced there by a court for assaulting the man who had a sexual affair with his wife. While spending time at the mental facility, for the first time he comes to terms with the fact that he suffers from bi-polar disorder.

Pat however, refuses to drink his medication because it makes him feel drowsy, but perhaps he just hasn’t had the right motivation to do so, yet. When he meets up again with Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a girl who herself seems to gravitate towards the extreme ends of socially acceptable behaviour, Pat finds someone with whom he can associate. 

The fact that Tiffany is in contact with Nikki, Pat’s ex-wife, is of course what really interests him (or so he says). Ever since his violent explosion and being sent for psychiatric counselling, Pat hasn’t seen her and all he can obsess about is getting back in touch with her.

Tiffany agrees to help get a letter to her from him, in return for dancing with her at an upcoming event. Although feeling forced into helping her, he soon realises that for all her unconventional quirks and mannerisms, everything she says or does is completely void of pretense something, that in his world, allows him to make more sense of things than he has been able to do for a very long time. 

  

‘Silver Linings Playbook’ is a wonderful story of two people making the most of dealing with some really challenging problems they have to face in life. It makes those of us who sometimes feel dejected and alienated realise that when you try hard enough and stay positive, you can have a silver lining to your story too.

Ultimately, we are all a bit messed up. Something this movie communicates really well. What you want and yearn for is often far simpler than you initially might have thought - to find someone that will love you and say, ‘It’s okay – I’ll be messed up with you.’