Director: David O. Russell
Year Released: 2012
Rating: 3.0
Fresh out of a mental institution (because of his bi-polar disorder), a former teacher (Bradley Cooper) moves back home with his Philadelphia Eagles-obsessed father (Robert De Niro) and all-too-understanding mother (Jacki Weaver), determined to reassemble his life and win back his wife (Brea Bree), who he caught having an affair. Though it's easy to quibble about the movie's representation of mental illness (Cooper having manic outbursts in the middle of the night, Cooper lacking any sort of decorum with regard to others, Cooper wearing a garbage bag to go jogging and run, run, run from those demons) and how apparently the 'cure' to having psychological problems is finding an equally damaged kindred spirit (the entrancing Jennifer Lawrence) to fall in love with (and dance with), I think the cast works absolutely wonderfully together (despite the script's contrivances) and make their scenes together alive - it's a triumph of crisp dialogue and actorly cohesion. That the four principle players were nominated for Oscars is no fluke - Lawrence in particular is a standout in a mature role that requires more than shooting teenagers in the face with arrows (we've come to expect no less from Cooper, De Niro or Weaver ... not to mention a very funny Chris Tucker).
