Welcome to another edition of Movie Review Monday!

This week's movie is the 2012 hit, Silver Linings Playbook, starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Robert De Niro.

I hadn't heard much about this movie before it came out but good word of mouth after its release got me in the theater to watch it, and I am a big fan of this movie. All the actors are great in it and it has a nice takeaway at the end; everyone is a little bit crazy.

Cooper stars as Pat, a former teacher who gets released from a mental hospital in the wake of his wife's adultery, which highlighted his bipolar disorder when Pat beat the man his wife, Nikki, was cheating on him with. Pat is nevertheless determined to win his wife back by bettering himself and proving he can be a better husband, ignoring the fact she wants nothing to do with him. Pat eventually meets Tiffany, played by Lawrence. She is a recent widow and dealing with the aftermath through a sex addiction.

Pay and Tiffany are able to connect through their shared grief and ability to help each other with their own personal goals; Pat hopes to communicate with his ex-wife through Tiffany and Tiffany needs a dance partner for an upcoming competition. They make a deal and end up spending time together rehearsing their routine, bickering throughout. The movie is funny in an odd, sort of dark way. Pat can be terribly obtuse at times but his aloofness can be humorous. Pat's parents, played by De Niro and Jackie Weaver, are eccentric in their own right, along with supporting character Danny, played by Chris Tucker. All the supporting characters help lighten the mood most of the time but there is also some dramatic moments as Pat works to get better through therapy and stumbles from time to time throughout the film.

Much like my previous review of Reign Over Me, this movie provides an interesting, engaging, and entertaining look into mental health, how we deal with it, and how we work to overcome our issues. As I mentioned before, my big takeaway from this movie is that everyone is a little bit crazy, and that's alright. It normalizes our quirks, and encourages us to allow ourselves to accept each other and love one another unconditionally.

I highly recommend this movie. It is well done, well acted, and has a great story.

You can stream it right now on Netflix!

Let me know what you think of this movie and if you have any recommendations for what I should watch next.

Thanks for stopping by!