When you look at the list of potential Oscar nominees this year, a simple romantic comedy like Silver Linings Playbook is easy to overlook. It’s not a period piece, there’s no CGI, and probably the most outrageous costuming in the entire film is when Bradley Cooper throws a garbage bag over his sweatshirt when he’s going for a run with a football.

Photo Credit: nextmovie.com

Aside from my time with a tiger on a lifeboat in 2006, SLP is the most easy to relate to my own life, which is probably why it can still stand up to several of the juggernauts that have come out this Oscar season (although I’d have to say that the chances of it winning any major awards are slim-to-none this year).

Like any romantic comedy, the thing that draws the audience into the story is the main couple; what keeps them together and what keeps them apart? Where most rom-coms resort to cheap gimmicks (mistaken identity, love interests compete against one another for the same prize, etc…) or societal archetypes and cliches to keep their characters from falling in love, SLP makes its characters their own worst enemies. It’s clear from the beginning that there is chemistry between Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, though it’s more lust than love, and within the first 30 minutes after their meeting, they announce that they’re in to each other. Bam. Awesome. Done. No beating around the bush, no missed connections. Here’s two people that are completely blatant and unapologetic about their feelings, and as an audience member, it’s pretty relieving. We don’t have to suspend our disbelief because the movie never asks us to.

Instead, David O. Russell allows the two characters to do one of the most romantic things imaginable: help each other become better people, no matter how much they can piss each other off. It’s almost like a real relationship!

Without going to far into it, this simple notion is what makes Silver Lining Playbook stand out from the rest of the romantic comedy pack. It’s blunt and it shows its relationships (not just between the two leads but also those with other family members and even sports teams) as we experience them from start to finish. There’s no (too) wacky twists and turns to distract us. It lays out the characters flaws first thing, and then it lets the other characters choose whether they want to still love that person or not. It’s logical, it’s smart and it’s incredibly fun to watch two messed-up characters trying to figure it all out.

Overall, the script was great and very funny and the characters played it off well with great chemistry. Even in some of the more forced situations in the film, De Niro, Cooper and Lawrence were able to keep things moving. I wasn’t really a huge Jennifer Lawrence fan before this mostly based off of Hunger Games, which I hated, but that wasn’t really her fault. I think she had a really great screen presence in this, and she played the character to just the right degree of “she’s really pretty, but she’s crazy, but she’s not SO crazy that I would think twice about going out with her” that I was still able to connect with her. Perhaps she just hit it too close to home in comparison to some of the girls I’ve seen in the past. Hm…

Overall, I’d give Silver Lining Playbook a 14/17 on the Sitz-o-meter. The script could have been tighter, the cinematography could have been better (although for a rom com, it’s not as important), but the acting and direction gave an honest feel to a sometimes over-the-top genre. In a busy and weighted Oscar season, don’t forget to check this one out as well.