What’s the meaning of a Silver Lining? When there’s a negative outlook on a situation, the silver lining is the positive light in the darkness. Now when you have a bad situation (let’s use football for example) and you’re in a hole, you have to look for the good plays when you’re down in order to come back and bring yourself back on your feet and charge a comeback. That’s the basis of the movie behind the analogy: there’s a lot of negative within the characters, but it’s the one positive that you can find in there that can shape them and bring it all together to make something better out of the situation.

Pat (Bradley Cooper) has undiagnosed bipolar (one spoiler, whatever) and is living in denial and has beliefs that there’s nothing wrong with him. How many people do you know like that? We can all see that there’s something just ‘not there’ with them, but they continue to tell you that it’s nothing. There’s something that haunts them, and Pat is being haunted. It’s funny because, he’s not the only one who has a mental disorder in the movie. Almost all of the main characters including: his father (Robert DeNiro), a fellow hospital patient/friend (Chris Tucker), and the girl from next door – Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence aka Katniss from The Hunger Games). This movie was about Pat trying to overcome his denial and his disorder in a positive way while trying to let go of his tumultuous past. It was original and it was a fantastic movie.

I’m an Eagles fan, and the movie was based in Philadelphia where Pat and his family are in fact Eagles fans. That’s not the main reason why I liked the movie, but it’s definitely a reason why I liked the movie. Eagles fans know what disappointment is but yet they always have hope because they’re a team that’s expected to always do well, so we (the fans) hold them in high regard. Football fans are very superstitious, because we don’t want bad karma or bad vibes floating around our teams (there’s even a series of Budweiser commercials that explain this theory perfectly). Robert DeNiro’s character is one that I would honestly see myself as at the age of 65 – Loud, Obsessive, and a grumpy Eagles fan on Sundays (and trust me, I’m pretty livid already as it is).

The main reason why I liked this movie is because it brought about the story of a man (Pat) who was dealing with a mental disorder and he went about it without necessarily using medication. It was the friendship between him and Tiffany that got him through it, and there is someone close to me that has bipolar and it’s a positive story about how there are ways to deal with it. Living in denial isn’t a form of helping; it’s just cheating your way out and doing more harm than good.

There were so many quotes in this movie that defined the movie that I couldn’t remember all of them, but it was one of those romantic comedies that didn’t strike you as the ordinary romantic comedies you’d be used to seeing. The corny and predictable plots that you see in movie trailers and have women all gushy weren’t evident. It reminded me of 50/50 where Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a cancer patient and he’s getting through that experience. The essence of the humour and drama combined, mixed in with the charisma and chemistry of the supporting cast made this movie overall enjoyable from the beginning to the end. There wasn’t a dull moment, because you felt involved with the story. It took me a while to watch it, but I’m glad that I finally did. I definitely recommend it to those looking to watch a good movie; it’s worth every dollar. But for now, this is my opinion; this is my review

That’s My Word & It STiXX