Friday, December 28, 2012

Silver Linings Playbook: Movie Review

The good guys scored another point last week when we snuck in a movie. “Silver Linings Playbook” to be specific. This is a movie that’s all about, well duh, seeing the silver lining behind the sucker punches life sometimes deals you. This is hard to do. For all of us. But it’s doubly hard for someone like Bradley Cooper, the star of the movie, because he plays Pat, a rough and tumble Philly townie. This guy’s vision of reality is so skewed there’s lots of easy stuff he can’t see (like the fact that his cute but damaged neighbor is in love with him) much less abstract stuff like problems and their silver linings. The odds are against Pat that he’s going to be able to identify all his problems, much less solve them.
Pat is a disaster, but he’s trying hard to see the good in the mess that is his life. So are all of the characters around him who’ve also been thrown curveballs but are struggling to stay in the game.
This movie is ostensibly about how Pat got his groove back, but it’s really about the journey we’re all on. It’s about flaws and mistakes and the hurt they cause, but it’s also about trust and connection and rising to the occasion. Ultimately, it’s about new beginnings and the painful and funny growth it takes to get them. It’s about recognizing what you value and taking the necessary steps to ensure it’s around in the morning. That morning after vision looks different for all of us, but the journey to get there is remarkably similar.
Cheers to “Silver Linings Playbook” for reminding us that, though they might not emerge unscathed from the battle, good guys often score. Cheers to lost dogs who are found, missing retainers that are discovered, and other minor miracles. Against the odds.

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