"The Silver Linings Playbook"

This is really good but not the home run I was hoping for. It came close with 95% of it standing up to its promise, but one segment, the climax segment, was very poorly done. Stanly Kubrick said their wasn't anything he couldn't put on film (words to that effect), but there's one thing even he can't fake, live dancing. You can dub singing, shoot and reshoot the acting, have tremendous f/x, build multimillion dollar sets, work the script, wardrobe, makeup etc., but you can't fake live dancing. They did good in the practice scenes, but when it came time for the choreography to meet the road, it was cut and chop like when they're cheating in a battle scene where you can get away with it somewhat. There may be the fog of war, there is no fog of dance.

I love Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, and Robert De Niro was much better than he's been in a long time, but it's a shame that sequence didn't rise up to the rest of their excellent performances and script. 8/10

It's been almost two months since I saw this, and I forgot to put it up in my usual places including in my personal log. I remembered how much I liked it, but forgot the one ding I gave it. It's surprising a lot of people with the awards attention it's getting, and it is excellent so you might wanna give it a look if you haven't already.