It stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, with Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, John Ortiz, Shea Whigham, Anupam Kher and Julia Stiles in supporting roles.
Cooper plays Patrizio "Pat" Solitano Jr., a man with bipolar disorder who is released from a psychiatric hospital and moves back in with his parents (De Niro and Weaver).
He meets a young widow, Tiffany Maxwell (Lawrence), who offers to help him get his wife back if he enters a dance competition with her.
Silver Linings Playbook premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2012, and was released in the United States on November 16, 2012.
Pat's therapist, Cliff Patel, tries to convince him to keep taking his medication because a repeat of his violent outbursts might send him back to the clinic.
After their set, Tiffany and Pat receive an average score of exactly 5.0 points amid cheers from friends and family and confused looks from the crowd.
Patrizio opens a restaurant with the money he has won, and Pat and Tiffany begin a relationship, no longer wearing their wedding rings.
[13] Pollack told Russell that the film adaptation would be tricky because of the story's mixture of troubling emotion, humor, and romance.
The film takes place over the second half of the 2008 NFL football season,[19] which saw the Philadelphia Eagles advance to the NFC Championship Game.
[16][17][21] Mark Wahlberg was set to work with Russell for the fourth time but had to drop out after delays in production created a scheduling conflict.
[16][17] Anne Hathaway was cast as Tiffany Maxwell, but due to scheduling conflicts with The Dark Knight Rises and creative differences with Russell, she dropped out.
[5][24][25] Other actresses who were considered for the part included Elizabeth Banks, Kirsten Dunst, Angelina Jolie, Blake Lively, Rooney Mara, Rachel McAdams, Andrea Riseborough and Olivia Wilde.
[17][21] He thought Lawrence (21 at the time of filming) was too young to play opposite Cooper (37), but her audition changed his mind, admitting that the "expressiveness in her eyes and in her face" was "ageless".
[34] Silver Linings Playbook premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2012,[35] where it won the People's Choice Award.
[35] The Weinstein Company initially planned an unusually wide release for Silver Linings Playbook, going nationwide on an estimated 2,000 screens.
[43] Silver Linings Playbook earned $443,003 in its opening weekend from 16 locations, facing strong competition from films including Skyfall and Lincoln.
The website's critical consensus reads, "Silver Linings Playbook walks a tricky thematic tightrope, but David O. Russell's sensitive direction and sharp work from a talented cast gives it true balance.
[54][55][56][57][58][59] Kevin Jagernauth of The Playlist praised the film as "an enormously entertaining, crowd-pleasing winner" and noted that the performances from the two leads were "carefully developed, and perfectly pitched", deserving of awards.
"[63] Eric Kohn of Indiewire gave the film an "A−" grade, praising Russell's direction and the performances of Cooper and Lawrence, stating that "both as solo screenwriter and director, Russell assembles a small, bubbly cast for an unexpectedly charming romcom that frequently dances — at one point, quite literally — between cynicism and bittersweetness with largely winning results.
"[64] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post remarked on Russell's skill, noting how "in any other hands, the adaptation of Matthew Quick's novel would be the stuff of banal rom-com fluff or, perhaps worse, self-consciously quirky indie cliches.
[66] Kenneth Turan called the film "a complete success" and the actors' performances "superb," including Chris Tucker in an "irresistible" supporting turn.
[67] Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer called the film "a transcendent endeavor, from its exhilaratingly smart screenplay... to the unexpected and moving turns of its two leads.
"[68] Ricardo Baca of The Denver Post praised how the film managed to maintain "the awkward laughs, giddy anxiousness and warm butterflies from the trailer" for its entire length.
"[73] Brody wrote, "I'm finding it hard not to make fun of the film's highly constructed and narrow-bore array of givens, of plot points and their resolutions.
"[73] Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph wrote that there's a "tiring fruitlessness to the mayhem", describing the lead character as a "rambling headcase", though noting Lawrence as the film's "only 'silver lining'".
"[75] The NFL was critical of the gambling in the film and declined to broadcast an interview with Bradley Cooper and Chris Tucker during Thanksgiving.
It became the first film since Reds (1981) to be Oscar-nominated for the four acting categories and the first since Million Dollar Baby (2004) to be nominated for the Big Five Oscars,[77] It was announced on October 5, 2021 that the movie will be developed into a stage musical for Broadway.