Silver Linings Playbook

Renee Witt, an executive at The Weinstein Company, convinced Harvey Weinstein to option the book by Matthew Quick on which the film is based,[19] doing so before it was published.[20] Sydney Pollack then began developing for David O. Russell to direct.[19] Pollack told Russell that the film adaptation would be tricky because of the story's mixture of troubling emotion, humor, and romance. Russell estimates he rewrote the script[21] twenty times over five years. Russell was drawn to the story because of the family relationships and the connection he felt to his own son, who has bipolar disorder and OCD.[22][23]

The film was shot in 33 days. A darker, more extreme version of the dance sequence was filmed and scenes with De Niro's character were shot in multiple versions, with the character harsher or warmer, as Russell worked with editor Jay Cassidy to set the balance they wanted.[22]

The locations are Upper Darby, Ridley Park, and Lansdowne communities just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although not mentioned by name in the film, Ridley Park is credited at the end, and a police officer can be seen wearing the initials "RPPD" on his collar.[24]

The film takes place over the second half of the 2008 NFL football season,[25] which saw the Philadelphia Eagles advance to the NFC Championship Game. Several games are mentioned, including the Eagles' victories over Seattle and San Francisco, their losses to two of their NFC East rivals Washington Redskins[26] and the New York Giants (which was the game Pat was attending when the fight broke out), and their victory over Dallas in the regular season's final game.

Russell initially intended to make the film with Vince Vaughn and Zooey Deschanel, but went on to make The Fighter instead.[22][23][27] Mark Wahlberg was set to work with Russell for the fourth time but had to drop out after delays in production created a scheduling conflict.[28]

Russell had originally planned to work with Bradley Cooper on an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, having been impressed with Cooper's performance in Wedding Crashers, citing his "good bad-guy energy" and unpredictability as justification for casting.[29] Cooper told Russell "he had been heavier and angrier and more fearful" at the time of that performance and had drawn on those feelings for it. Russell was excited that Cooper would bring those qualities to Pat Solitano.[22][23]

Anne Hathaway was cast as Tiffany Maxwell, but due to scheduling conflicts with The Dark Knight Rises and creative differences with Russell, she dropped out.[11][30][31] Other actresses who were considered for the part included Elizabeth Banks, Kirsten Dunst, Angelina Jolie, Blake Lively, Rooney Mara, Rachel McAdams, Andrea Riseborough and Olivia Wilde.[23][27][28][32][33]

Initially, Russell did not believe Lawrence's age was suitable for the role.[23][27] He thought Lawrence (21 at the time of filming) was too young to play opposite Cooper (37), but her audition changed his mind, admitting that the "expressiveness in her eyes and in her face" was "ageless".[20][34] Russell compares Lawrence to the character Tiffany, describing her as confident but one of the least neurotic people he knows, with the confidence and glimpses of vulnerability needed to play Tiffany.[20] Tiffany went through several iterations. She was initially meant to be goth. Lawrence dyed her hair black and did test shoots in heavy goth makeup, but Weinstein disapproved. The final version of her character remained messed-up yet confident, with small goth touches such as the dark hair and a cross.[20] Specifically for the role, Lawrence was asked by Russell to put on weight[35] and to speak in a lower register.[20]

According to Entertainment Weekly, Lawrence said she didn't have a handle on Tiffany at first, which was what excited her about the role. "She was just a character I one-hundred percent did not understand at all... She's like, 'I'm messed up, I'm not like everybody else, I've got issues. Take it or leave it because I like myself.'"[36]

Lawrence and Cooper had no previous dance experience. In less than a month, Mandy Moore, a choreographer for So You Think You Can Dance, taught them the dance sequences. Moore describes Cooper as having "some real natural dancing ability".[37][38] Lawrence said of the climactic ballroom dance, "None of that was improvised, absolutely not. I'm a terrible dancer, so I would never have been able to do any of that. When it finally came together, that scene really was just as fun as it feels."[36]

Silver Linings Playbook premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and was critically acclaimed. The film has an approval rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 260 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Silver Linings Playbook walks a tricky thematic tightrope, but David O. Russell's sensitive direction and some sharp work from a talented cast gives it true balance."[47] On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 reviews from mainstream critics, the film holds an average score of 81, based on reviews from 45 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[48] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[49]

The performance of Jennifer Lawrence received widespread acclaim and the 22-year-old received the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, becoming the second-youngest Best Actress winner.

Cooper and Lawrence were lauded for their performances.[50][51][52][53][54][55] Kevin Jagernauth of The Playlist praised the film as "an enormously entertaining, crowd-pleasing winner" and noted that the performances from the two leads were "carefully developed, and perfectly pitched", deserving of awards.[56] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter said that "the chemistry between Cooper and Lawrence makes them a delight to watch" and that their performances anchor the ensemble cast who also give great performances even in small roles. Rooney also complimented the "invigorating messiness" and "nervous energy" of the choreography.[57] Richard Corliss of Time magazine also applauded the performances of the leads, particularly Lawrence, stating that her performance is "the reason to stay" to watch the whole movie, and praising her maturity.[58]

Russell's direction was also widely acclaimed, with Justin Chang of Variety writing: "Never one to shy away from unlikely sources of comedy, David O. Russell tackles mental illness, marital failure and the curative powers of football with bracingly sharp and satisfying results."[59] Eric Kohn of Indiewire gave the film an "A−" grade, praising the performances of both Cooper and Lawrence and also Russell's directing, stating that "both as solo screenwriter and director, Russell assembles a small, bubbly cast for an unexpectedly charming romcom that frequently dances — at one point, quite literally — between cynicism and bittersweetness with largely winning results."[60] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post remarked on Russell's skill, noting how "in any other hands, the adaptation of Matthew Quick's novel would be the stuff of banal rom-com fluff or, perhaps worse, self-consciously quirky indie cliches."[61]

Bradley Cooper's performance garnered critical acclaim and earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor

Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half out of four stars, saying that the film was "so good, it could almost be a terrific old classic" and described Russell's screenplay as "ingenious" for the way the major concerns of both the father and son pivot on the final bet.[62] Kenneth Turan called the film "a complete success" and the actors' performances "superb," including Chris Tucker in an "irresistible" supporting turn.[63] Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer called the film "a transcendent endeavor, from its exhilaratingly smart screenplay... to the unexpected and moving turns of its two leads."[64] Ricardo Baca of The Denver Post praised how the movie managed to maintain "the laughs, giddy anxiousness and warm butterflies from the trailer" for its entire length.[65] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called it "one of the year's best movies. It's crazy good."[66]

Negative reviews of the film came from The New Yorker, whose critic David Denby called it "a miscalculation from beginning to end" and found Cooper's character "tiresome",[67] while Richard Brody found Linings perhaps to "be the year's most artificial movie" and "the plot [...] utterly ridiculous."[68] In a rare step outside the magazine's typical practices, Brody revisited the movie and wrote a supplementary review, once again condemning it as having "no characters but sets of switches, each of which has a binary set of options and all of which have to line up for things to come out right."[69] Brody wrote, "I'm finding it hard not to make fun of the movie's highly constructed and narrow-bore array of givens, of plot points and their resolutions."[69] Both critics found Lawrence's Oscar-winning performance "unconvincing."[67][68] Denby wrote, "we don't believe [Tiffany] for a second when she says that, in her grief, she 'had sex with everyone in my office.' Lawrence is tough and proud, and always plays strong, and the remark doesn't track with anything we see onscreen."[67] Brody finds Lawrence, "a poised and graceful actress", who "has none of the wildness that her character needs—and that lack of wildness is part of the reason for the movie's success."[69]

Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph wrote that there's a "tiring fruitlessness to the mayhem", describing the lead character as a "rambling headcase", though noting Lawrence as the film's "only silver lining".[70] The Globe and Mail's chief film critic, Liam Lacey, gave three out of four stars, but wrote "you can easily see Silver Linings Playbook as a better-acted version of any number of Sundance-style films about quirky outsiders who find a common bond."[71]

The NFL was critical of the gambling in the film and declined to broadcast an interview with Bradley Cooper and Chris Tucker during Thanksgiving.[72]

The film earned $443,003 in its opening weekend from 16 locations, facing strong competition from films including Skyfall and Lincoln.[73] Expanding to 367 locations in its second week, the film moved to ninth place with $4.4 million.[74] By December 30, it was showing at 745 theaters and had earned $27.3 million.[75] On January 18, 2013, it earned $12.7 million when it expanded to 2,523 theaters, which boosted its total to $56.7 million.[76] In its second weekend of playing in over 2500 theaters, its sales only declined by 12.2%. Gitesh Pandya stated it was well on its way to reaching the $100 million mark and could go much higher if it remained durable over the weeks.[77]

Ray Subers forecast the film would earn $100 million, predicting that the film would start slow but keep going through December and gain a wide audience, bringing in fans of Lawrence and Cooper from their work on big franchise films, The Hunger Games and The Hangover, respectively.[78] The film surpassed the $100 million mark in North America on February 19, 2013.[79] As of May 11, 2013, the movie has become a sleeper box office hit, making over eleven times its budget.

The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director for Russell, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Actor for Cooper, Best Actress for Lawrence, Best Supporting Actor for De Niro and Best Supporting Actress for Weaver. Jennifer Lawrence's performance won the movie its only Academy Award and it made her the second-youngest winner in the Best Actress category, only behind Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God.

• Cinemablend listed the film at 8 on its list of the year's 10 best.[80]
• Critic Catherine Shoard of The Guardian listed the film at number 4 on her list of the year's 10 best.[81]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[82]

Silver Linings Playbook: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is a soundtrack to the film of the same name, released in the United States by Sony Music Entertainment on November 16, 2012 for digital download.[83]

The lead single from the soundtrack, "Silver Lining (Crazy 'Bout You)" peaked at #100 in the UK Singles.[84] The soundtrack includes music from Stevie Wonder, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Alt-J, Eagles of Death Metal, Jessie J and two tracks from the score composed by Danny Elfman.

Not featured on the soundtrack include Led Zeppelin's "What Is and What Should Never Be" and The White Stripes' "Hello Operator". Stevie Wonder's "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing" and The White Stripes' "Fell in Love with a Girl" are played as the opening numbers of Pat and Tiffany's dance scene; "Misty" performed by Johnny Mathis, is played after Pat and Tiffany learn they received an average of 5.0 for their dance number. "Wild Is the Wind" performed by Nina Simone, which is played at the start of the film's end credits.

Also not on the soundtrack are, and the opening numbers of their dance scene

Danny Elfman's score for the film was released on digital download by Sony Music Entertainment simultaneously with the song album. "Goof Track" is not heard in the film.