Dramedy, the mixture of drama and comedy, this time with a little more drama than comedy. Director David O. Russell was nominated for Academy Awards in Hollywood with his previous work, The Fighter, which led to Christian Bale and Melissa Leo to win the statuettes for best actor and actress, and put himself on the list of nominated for best director and best picture. Had previously demonstrated Three Kings a knack for getting into the territory of the genres more predictable unpredictability getting through personal touches. So he does on the bright side of things. At first glance it seems a story engaging primarily with the tradition of illustrious predecessors recognized by Oscar, as Marty (Delbert Mann, 1955) and Charly (Ralph Nelson, 1968), addressing the protagonist bipolar disorder much more credit than sweetened and false fortunes of manic depressive played by Richard Gere in Mr. Jones (Mike Figgis, 1993), but then takes a turn toward the end of the story and is installed on more commercial terms, seeking to meet an audience that always prefers end closest to the optimism, which diminishes some strength. The funny thing is that despite the optimism that covenant from starting so pessimistic, even heartbreaking in some scenes, such as the search for the videotape of the wedding, the film loses its initial strength, and sustained over a visual treatment that gets us headlong into the plot with characters, navigates firmly into the territory of nonsense going even in the field of romantic comedy.
I must say that I do not like romantic comedy is today. I find it extremely boring because it’s so predictable, no surprises, no twists. But I liked Silver Linings Playbook. Even with that sweet message of optimism final, I would have preferred something more bittersweet, mainly for consistency with the first part of the story. This has not happened, but I consent, because Russell has managed to play with the viewer to make even my instinct and my nihilistic skepticism humanists spontaneous emotions are left to ask for an end entangle most optimistic possible for these characters abused.
That is also credited with a cast that works on the central elements of the main characters, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, with roles clearly much more complete and interesting than they have had so far in interpreting his career as a star. Around them, paying impeccable sound that glides toward wildlife nonsense as the plot progresses, until the end turned into a real chorus of lunatics, each with their own quirks that add to the puzzle of mental illness already meet the two protagonists, we find the same solid play with minor characters that Russell already deployed in The Fighter. The superstitious father who plays Robert De Niro is one of the actor’s best work in recent years, one in which no self-parody, but returns to work building a character with all the temperament of great actor accompanying this essential figure to explain the American cinema of the past five decades. Nothing to overexploitation or parody that marks the actor’s recent work. Those look out De Niro seeing your child home are art because perfectly with minimal gestures everything that goes through the head of the concerned father and his son in front disoriented considered simultaneously as attachment figure and as a real problem everyday. Furthermore each supporting character is caring for a world in which we like we were watching a docudrama or a reality show that has become so popular on television in recent years. This mother of the protagonist played by Jacki Weaver deserves to be among this year’s nominees for Best Supporting Actress. Seeing her and De Niro sure many parents in similar situations to come fully recognized in this labyrinth without exit. Another example of care in the secondary characters is found in the two brief scenes of dialogue with friend played by John Ortiz, confesses that outcome where the garage is going to listen to music of Metallica and Megadeth and destroy everything, or that encounter with the elder brother played by Shea Wigham (the younger brother of «Knuckles» Thompson in Boardwalk Empire series), which shows the insensitivity familiar with the problem of the protagonist. Russell does not need much footage to make it absolutely defined and even developed these secondary characters but essential to the story.
Perhaps the weakest of the proposal is that the formula update of Cyrano de Bergerac story that revolves around the letter and that outcome Dirty Dancing style that left me a bit offside about everything I liked both the first installment of the story.
But none of this detracts from the appeal of this drama with a few drops of romantic comedy that engages the viewer with fluency and spontaneity and has all the necessary elements that often lead to some films to compete for the Academy Awards in Hollywood.
A good alternative to the offers oscarizables Lincoln, Les Miserables and The Life of Pi.
Miguel Juan Payán
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