All’s well that ends well, or so the saying goes. I suppose that’s true to a degree. I certainly found it to be the case, only a few moments ago, as I watched the end of “Silver Lining Playbook.”
It had been a frustrating week at the movies. Missteps, bad timing, and desperation had conspired to place my unenthusiastic butt in a seat on a drizzly Wednesday morning to watch “Silver Lining.” The romantic comedy, or drama, or whatever it is had come out in the fall, or early winter, or whenever it was, barely made a blip, and then disappeared. But The Weinstein Company, which is distributing the indie effort, has schmoozing the Academy down to a science, and the movie somehow simultaneously received a Best Picture nomination for 2012 and re-appeared in theaters. Hmmm...
Regardless, there I was, none too eager, but telling myself to have an open mind.
My wife doesn’t have an open mind when it comes to movies. She likes them bright, cheerful, and full of either action or romance. She also demands happy endings. Dark and dreary are not her cup of tea. With this in mind, I look back on my invitation Monday night to take her to see “Les Miserables” as an egregious miscalculation. I hadn’t been so off base since boastfully predicting the Broncos would defeat the Ravens in the NFL playoffs.
I do have a fairly open mind when it comes to movies. Dark and dreary are OK, as are unhappy endings. Plus, people at our church had told me “Les Miserables” contains a powerful message about grace. This was evident in the opening minutes as Hugh Jackman’s character steals items made of silver from a priest who gave him food and shelter, and then the priest forgives him and adds his priceless candlesticks to the spoils.
What also was obvious, at least in the heated glare I was detecting in my peripheral vision, was that we wouldn’t be watching the rest of the three-hour movie, in which the characters sing nearly all of the dialogue. I must admit it was hard to watch the actors awkwardly put notes to “How are youuuuu?” “I’m fiiiiiine.” I was in for the duration, but I wasn’t there alone, so I relented and we left the theater, unable to see anything else due to the late hour.
This created a dilemma in which I’d be pushing my deadline for this column. So on Tuesday, I resolved to see “Zero Dark Thirty,” an action drama about the pursuit and killing of Osama Bin Laden. My enthusiasm was low because of the reports about the moviemakers either playing fast and loose with the facts, or being fed a mouthful of baloney about what happened, bringing to question the accuracy of the film. Unlike the newspaper man at the end of “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” who says, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend,” I believe if you’re going to promote your movie as historically correct, then you should show the truth, not the legend.
My musings were moot, as Flixster and the movie theater were in disagreement about the film’s starting time. Again, it was too late for me to see something else, so I returned home, sweating beads about seeing a movie and turning in my review on the day of my deadline.
Fortunately, “Silver Linings,” or rather the theater showing it, came to the rescue with a 10:10 a.m. showing. Surprisingly, several people attended, despite the strange hour. That Harvey Weinstein. Such a slickster.
For the first hour or so, I hated the movie, in which the two leads have serious mental and emotional issues that make everyone around them, including the audience, miserable. Worse, the director didn’t know whether he was shooting a comedy, a drama, or whatever, everything from the music to the dialogue was trying too hard to be quirky, and the camera work was all over the place. I still don’t understand the action-movie style zooms.
Then, at the halfway point, I started to laugh, party at some funny material, and partly at the sheer absurdity of certain scenes, including one in which all of the movie’s characters end up screaming and yelling at each other. I also started to care about how things turned out. By the end, I was emotionally invested, and I don’t mind admitting I had to choke back a tear. Like its characters, “Silver Linings” is a bi-polar mess, but buried under all of the chaos is integrity and heart.
My wife would’ve approved.