Earlier today the occasionally brilliant Joe Bomowski wrote the following: “I’ve seen a lot of HE commenters complain about the ‘rom-com cliches’ in the third act of Silver Linings Playbook. So what exactly path would you maestros wish upon it? I think it fully earns that feel-good redemption at the end. It’s sort of what makes the movie. By the time Cooper and Lawrence are circling the dance floor and all the players are there for it, you’re watching basically 1991 Martin Scorsese directing a pretty much perfect character-based romantic comedy.
“But you guys are out there booing and going ‘this is too conventional, this is too easy’? What would be better? Cooper goes insane and slaughters everybody? Lawrence blows that guy at the bar and Cooper kills himself and a big Gaspar Noe title that says ‘FUCK CAPITALISM’ flashes on screen in black-on-white font?
“Why can’t it be a little conventional or feel-good and STILL WORK? I’m sure all you naysayers would still moon over every frantic Howard Hawks screwball with a happy ending and the snappy guy getting the tough dame. What’s with this criteria that post-1981, and more specifically, post-‘negative blog commenter turning 27,’ that absolutely anything romantic or un-cynical or ‘happy’ is automatically weak or bad or bullshit?”
Wells afterthought: There’s a correlation, I suspect, between SLP hate and the lonely-guy or homely-guy lifestyle. Those who haven’t experienced wonderful luck or exceptional fortune in the romantic realm…well, they might be having a slightly tougher time with this kind of film. I myself have known mostly disappointment and frustation and some heartbreak but I remember the lucky days, the randy days & the days of wine and roses and occasional amazement, so I have a place in my head for it. Or my heart, rather. I know, I know — why, then, is Joe Bomowski, the king of L.A. pain, an SLP fan? Because life is full of exceptions and there are no hard and fast rules that apply all the way around the track. But the general blowsy rule is that people who have trouble getting laid are more likely to be against SLP than people who are getting it regularly or score occasionally and are cool with this.
