silver linings playbook

Philadelphia Film Festival Opens with Silver Linings Playbook Starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence

Silver Linings Playbook
Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook | Mirage Enterprises

The 2012 Philadelphia Film Festival‘s opening night film, Silver Linings Playbook, is a love letter to the town. Set and shot in Philly, the dramedy stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Robert DeNiro. It won the coveted Audience Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and has since received lots of Oscar buzz.

I was thrilled to see the film on October 18, 2012, more than a month before its official opening date of November 21, and what better place than the city where it’s based? None of the lead actors were able to attend – not even Cooper, Philly’s native son. Luckily, director and screenwriter David O. Russell (Three Kings, The Fighter), producer Bruce Cohen, and Matthew Quick, author of the book by the same title, were all able to be there. Quick is a Philadelphia native, too.

Matthew Quick and David O. Russell
Matthew Quick and David O. Russell at the Philadelphia Film Festival opening night screening of Silver Linings Playbook | Melanie Votaw Photo

The movie is showing at a number of festivals around the world, but Philly is the only screening where landmarks will be applauded and cheered. In fact, many of the extras were in the audience, as well as the family that owns the home used in the movie.

At the Q&A after the screening, director Russell said he loves location scouting, especially when looking for real homes to use for his films. He asked a local in the audience to stand — a man who ended up being hired as a Philadelphia Eagles football team consultant for the movie. The Eagles figure largely in the story, and this man apparently is a homegrown enthusiast / expert. Russell becomes attached to many of the people he meets while shooting films on location and has maintained long-term friendships with them.

David O. Russell
David O. Russell talks about Silver Linings Playbook at the Philadelphia Film Festival | Melanie Votaw Photo

Mark Wahlberg was originally attached to play the lead that eventually went to Cooper. “I love Mark,” Russell said. “We’ve made three movies together. Then, it was going to work out; then it wasn’t going to work out for a number of reasons that were out of my hands.”

“Bradley and I had been talking for a while. He was very eager to show a lot of dimension as an actor. It’s a very good role for him,” Russell added. “I saw Bradley as a very angry guy in Wedding Crashers, and then, I thought, ‘What’s underneath there?’ When I met him, there’s a lot underneath there. He’s a very smart, emotional guy from Jenkintown.” (The mention of Jenkintown, a Philadelphia neighborhood, evoked cheers from the audience.)

Because Wahlberg had to leave the project, Cooper was brought in at the last minute and had little time to prepare. He has said that he was a bit insecure at first about his ability to pull off the role. Russell stressed that this insecurity is common among actors. “Every actor I’ve ever met from Dustin Hoffman to Christian Bale — some of the greatest actors in the world — tell me that the day they show up, they always say, ‘Oh, my God, I have no idea how to do this.’ Then, they figure it out. It takes a lot of courage.”

Matthew Quick
Matthew Quick at the Philadelphia Film Festival | Melanie Votaw Photo

Of Jennifer Lawrence, Russell said that they first felt she was too young for the part, but she Skyped an audition to him. “She knocked us out,” he said. Cooper and Lawrence would have attended the Philly screening except that Cooper was shooting The Hangover Part III, and Lawrence was shooting The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. “I don’t have a franchise that starts with an H,” Russell joked.

Editing of the film took six months even though they shot all of the footage in 33 days. After the shoot is over, Russell said, “You sit down in the editing room and say, ‘Oh my God, now I have to make the movie all over again’ because you have to sift through all that material.”

Producer Cohen said, “David shoots a lot of footage and gives the actors lots of different alternate ways to do the scene and lets them sort of go with scenes. So, when you get into the editing room, there’s a lot of different choices. So, the movie went into a bunch of different directions, and we sort of gradually figured out how we wanted it to go.”

Three months ago, Russell said, certain moments weren’t in the movie, but now, he can’t imagine the film without those moments.

Quick is pleased with the adaptation of his book. “If you listen to the audio book of Silver Linings Playbook, it’s 6-1/2 hours long,” he said. “So, of course, if you try to put everything in the movie, it would be a 7-hour movie. Of course, that’s not going to fly. So, David’s task was to take that and to create something visual that would occupy two hours on the screen. And I think he did a fantastic job of adapting the film.”

Silver Linings Playbook posterThe film begins when Pat (Cooper) is released from a mental hospital. Let’s just say he has few social skills and struggles to keep his anger in check. DeNiro plays his father, and it looks like Dad isn’t much better in the mental health department.

Enter Tiffany (Lawrence), who isn’t exactly the picture of mental health herself. Tiffany and Pat clash and bond in a wild but heartwarming ride that climaxes with a positively wackadoodle dance sequence. Their relationship is unlike anything I’ve ever seen on the screen.

Silver Linings Playbook is quirky in the way that Russell’s previous film, Flirting with Disaster, is quirky. All of the actors give stellar performances, and you’ll probably be surprised by both Cooper and Lawrence. DeNiro serves up his best work in years as a Philadelphia Eagles fanatic (and I mean fanatic!) Without a doubt, it’s one of the must-sees of the year.

The Philadelphia Film Festival runs through October 28, 2012 and includes appearances by several luminaries in cinema, including Robert Zemeckis and M. Night Shyamalan. Check out a few trailers below of some of the films screened during the Festival.

The Sessions has received Oscar buzz for stars Helen Hunt and John Hawkes. It’s the story of a man who is ill and hires a sex surrogate so that he can lose his virginity.

War Witch is the harrowing story of a 14-year-old girl child soldier in Africa.

Stand Up Guys is a comedy starring Christopher Walken, Al Pacino, and Alan Arkin, directed by Fisher Stevens. ‘Nuff said.

Quartet is Dustin Hoffman’s feature film directing debut, and it stars the great Maggie Smith.

Comments

7 responses to “Philadelphia Film Festival Opens with Silver Linings Playbook Starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence”

  1. Jane Boursaw Avatar

    What a great report! I cannot wait to see Silver Linings Playbook – and the other movies, too. 
     
    I love what David O. Russell said about how even the veteran actors show up and have to figure it out as they go along. I think we get the feeling they just know how to do every role, because they’ve been in the business for so long. It’s good to know they’re just like us. 🙂

    1. melanievotaw Avatar
      melanievotaw

      @Jane Boursaw A friend of mine wrote a great book in the 80s in which he interviewed TONS of actors, including Lawrence Olivier, who admitted that he was terrified every time he had to step on stage. It’s pretty much universal.

  2. […] In one decision in which both groups agreed, best actress honors went to Riva, although the L.A. critics have her share that prize with Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook. […]

  3. […] race. Lincoln lead the pack with 13 nominations and Les Miserables followed with 11 nods, while Silver Linings Playbook is right behind with […]

  4. […] be joining director David O. Russell for a Q&A session promoting Silver Linings Playbook at 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT. Just click through to the SAG Foundation to […]

  5. […] Cooper, star of “Silver Linings Playbook,” the Oscar-nominated film about a man living with bipolar disorder, recently joined former […]

  6. […] on TBS and TNT, “Silver Linings Playbook” on Showtime (read Melanie Votaw’s notes here), and the Lifetime movie, “Flowers in the Attic,” which Belle Wong wrote about here, […]

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