( CNN ) -- `` A tragedy with a happy ending '' -- is n't that what we want ? People generally concentrate on the happy ending part of that sentence , taking it for evidence of a taste for mass delusion or collective amnesia . The movies overwhelmingly give us happy endings . But too many give us happy beginnings and middles , too , as if we 're incapable of enjoying the meat in a sandwich . David O. Russell keeps a smile on his face -- all six of his films could be called comedies -- but he does n't shirk from the other part of the equation , either . He 's touched on incest ( `` Spanking the Monkey '' ) , adoption ( `` Flirting with Disaster '' ) , the Gulf War ( `` Three Kings '' ) , drug dependency ( `` The Fighter '' -- not exactly a comedy , but a film with as many laughs as most ) , and even existential despair ( `` I Heart Huckabees '' ) . Putting the `` antic '' into `` romantic '' , `` Silver Linings Playbook '' , is a comedy about clinical depression . Cynics might roll their eyes -- me too , actually -- but the movie plays like a dream . It defeated `` Argo '' for the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival in September , the first harbinger of the Oscar season . In his most credible attempt to break out of the `` light leading man '' mantle ( which is not to say he 's all that credible ) , Bradley Cooper plays Pat , a New Jersey high school history teacher tipped off his bipolar axis after finding his wife showering with another faculty member . Released from the hospital after several months , he returns to live with his parents ( Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver ) and determined to win back the love of his life -- hopefully without encroaching on the restraining order . A blind date with his best friend 's recently widowed and equally traumatized sister-in-law Tiffany ( Jennifer Lawrence ) furnishes the manically overoptimistic Pat with a co-conspirator , and , he hopes , a back channel to his ex . But Tiffany has her own agenda and her own needs -- including a dance partner for an upcoming competition . This last item would seem to be a sure recipe for the purest cinematic cheese , but Russell does n't let it curdle . He 's the ideal director to bring Matthew Quick 's best-seller to the screen because he 's too edgy to wallow . Just as `` The Fighter '' fended off punch drunk `` Rocky '' euphorics with a series of swift , cruel jabs , the brisk , eccentric `` Silver Linings Playbook '' resists settling into a feel-good groove . By keeping things rough and raw -- his scenes are always an inch or three off-kilter , a little jerky and unpredictable -- Russell makes the jokes feel sharper , and the sentiment that much sweeter . In other words , he reminds us that silver linings are precious because they come attached to great big black clouds . Nothing if not an actors ' movie , `` Silver Linings '' provides De Niro with his juiciest comic role since the first `` Meet the Parents . '' His socially sanctioned , but deeply superstitious , obsession with football is as wild as anything going on with his son . Weaver , the Australian actress who earned an Academy Awards supporting nomination for `` Animal Kingdom , '' is completely convincing as a loving wife and mom who 's in over her head in this chaotic household . And Chris Tucker ( yes , that Chris Tucker ) is a hoot as Pat 's certifiably insane , but scrupulously polite hospital buddy . Even then , the biggest takeaway has to be `` Hunger Games '' star Lawrence . She does n't just hold her own , she absolutely bosses her scenes , De Niro and all . Does `` Silver Linings Playbook '' trivialize depression and mental illness ? In the end , I think you have to say it sugarcoats those things . But a little positive thinking never hurts : See this one with a receptive crowd . Chances are you 'll come out feeling better than when you went in .
`` Silver Linings Playbook '' is a comedy about clinical depression . The film stars Bradley Cooper , Robert De Niro , Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Tucker . Critic calls it `` an actors ' movie ''