This looks like an over-indulgent Jennifer Lawrence vehicle. All of her characters sort of look and act the same (maybe it's her limited 0-60 mph in a flash emotional tirade acting style) with the cool girl/down home girl persona. It also looks like she's playing another character she's too young to portray.
I couldn't get over how awful Silver Linings Playbook was. It lacked any sort of subtlety and its humor was super middle-brow (Chris Tucker saying things white suburban audiences expect a black best friend would say/oh look the Indian Psychiatrist is also a huge football fan, how funny! OMG, those snobby dance competitors cannot believe Lawrence/Cooper would dance to rock music! Why are they so happy with 5.0s? Just like the Jennifer Lopez video paying homage to Flashdance. Cue eye roll). I had major problems with the way David O. Russell basically used the camera to ogle at Lawrence the whole movie, and her character was flat who only had two on-the-surface emotions (the cool girl that Gone Girl makes fun of and over-the-top rant over-cryer). Lawrence is empty behind the eyes and I have a feeling she didn't really get the character or maybe she isn't a nuanced actress. She likes it when she can play cool and when she can scream like an idiot (which this character was as she so pathetically went after Bradley Cooper's disgustingly much older character and was only written to serve that purpose while Cooper transformed from sad, single-minded loser to Bradley Cooper "movie star" in the ridiculous dance competition). I hated SLP so much that it made me rethink my affection for The Fighter.
I also thought it was supremely obvious that three of the other actress nominated for an Academy Award the year Lawrence won were way more skilled and portrayed their characters with much more believability than Lawrence is capable of. In fact the non-nominated Rachel Weisz in Deep Blue Sea and Marion Cotillard in Rust & Bone (a performance superior to her nominated 2 Days, 1 Night) were way ahead of Lawrence's capabilities as an actress as well. It's was a real farce of a win, but she was the "it" girl and the Russell made sure the film highlighted her assets while letting her scream and cry enough to make it look legit.
"I've got to get me out of here
This place is full of dirty old men
And the navigators and their mappy maps
And moldy heads and pissing on sugar cubes
While you stare at your books."
Updated On: 7/18/15 at 01:58 PM
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