If there’s a dark horse with a real chance in this year’s Oscar race, it might just be Silver Linings Playbook. Now, everyone’s saying it’s going to be Argo because everyone loves Ben Affleck all of a sudden, or rather they always loved him and found all the hatred to be just SO UNFAIR and now that he has done things that aren’t absolutely terrible we’re therefore going to give him every award there is to give a person.
There are some who contend that Lincoln is still the pick to beat because it has the most nominations, it has the Spielberg factor, it has the Daniel Day-Lewis thing, and it has the topical advocacy aspect that if only government acted this way Obama would be able to save the country like Honest Abe did way back when. Hollywood has a tendency for delusions of grandeur.
The delusions portrayed in Silver Linings Playbook, though, are one of the many charms about the movie that help maintain its place in the awards conversations. Every now and then there comes a movie that is almost universally underestimated, from its premiere at TIFF to people who are still seeing it for the first time, thinking to themselves it can’t possibly be as good as everyone says, can it?
This movie is one that depends on the element of surprise in a way, so a surprise victory at the Oscars in less than a month’s time would be rather fitting. It’s appropriate because everything Pat and Tiffany do in the film is virtually unpredictable. It’s one of the defining features of mental illness. While many of these surprises may be unpleasant, the movie is ultimately a feel-good story, and an Oscar win would be the pinnacle of feel-good stories for a movie like this. Here are 6 other surprises that made Silver Linings Playbook so damn enjoyable for everyone.
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