Teaser Tuesdays: The Man from Primrose Lane

"Sackett called him the Man with the Thousand Mittens because the old hermit always wore mittens, even in the middle of July. He doubted most people had noticed the old man wore different mittens every time he stepped out of his ramshackle house."
 p.6, "The Man from Primrose Lane"  James Renner

I haven't started reading the book yet but I learned last week that Bradley Cooper is going to star in the film version of the book so I'm  planning to do so. What do you think of the teaser?


This teaser from The Man from Primrose Lane is part of this weeks Teaser Tuesdays meme hosted by Ms B at Should Be Reading. Grab a book and play along.

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UNSCRIPTED: David O. Russell

Bradley Cooper, David O. Russell and Jennifer Lawrence
Photo Source: Philly.com

"I got put on jury duty which is where I learned to write."

David O. Russell, Writer/Director

Silver Linings Playbook

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Why is Silver Linings Playbook movie so good? Watch!

One look at this man's face says it all...watch!

Why is Silver Linings Playbook so good? Besides being based on a great book whose happy ending is its own silver lining, besides having a solid gold cast of Actors at the height of their game, it's all about the director David O. Russell. Russell also adapted Matthew Quick's novel.

In this very touching video he talks about his intensely personal connection.  There is a moment about about 2:40 in where he very visibly has to control his own emotions, where we see the man's desperate love and concern for his own child written on his face. That terrible inner turmoil, his need to help his son, his hurt for him, his recognition of his own failings as a father and a filmmaker, have led to really mature and superlative work.

Silver Linings Playbook is nominated for Best Picture in the Musical or Comedy category in this Sunday's Golden Globes. It is up against my personal fave Les Miz, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, and the only non book, Moonrise Kingdom (which I've seen twice and still don't much like). Both Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence are up for awards as well. A Best Actor nom for Cooper's loveable bipolar Pat and a supporting nomination for Jennifer Lawrence who has been universally credited with pulling this one off. Unexpected if you only know her from The Hunger Games perhaps.

I'll be watching Tina Fey and Amy Pohler host the Golden Globes telecast this Sunday night on NBC at 8pm Eastern Standard Time.

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Silver Linings Playbook: my take on the movie

File this under 'better late than never'.  Just in case you still haven't seen it ... after all your friends told you how great it was? What are you waiting for? ... here's my long overdue 'take' on The Silver Linings Playbook. It's really less a review (there are a ton of good ones over at Rotten Tomatoes) and more a look at the casting. Having read the book, I knew that Matthew Quick's funny, heartwarming story about a couple of mentally fragile souls who help heal each other and find love, had the potential to be a really good movie.

It was writer/director David O. Russell's casting choices that had me befuddled. Right off the bat I bristled when I read Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games) was cast as Tiffany, the grieving widow who chases after Pat.  Literally chases after him; following him every time he goes jogging, gradually building up a friendship of sorts. They strike a bargain; she'll help him communicate with his ex-wife despite a restraining order in place and in return, he'll be her partner in a dance competition. In the novel, Tiffany is older than the 30 year old Pat by a few years so I was disappointed that the director chose to cast a hot young name rather than a more seasoned actress. It wasn't only that I thought it would take an older actress to have the cojones to pull off the brassy, ballsy but deeply wounded widow. It was that I thought, 'Oh, wonderful! Here's a great part for an actress that's actually over 30! Hurrah!'  But what does Russell do? Cast a 22 year old instead. My frustration with what felt like typical male sexist attitudes aside, I did Jennifer Lawrence a disservice as an actress. Whatever her age, Lawrence has the maturity required to carry off a Tiffany who, under a brittle and aggressive mask is at once both desperately determined and vulnerable. Old beyond her years you might say. A wounded bird. Russell lets us know her actual age isn't the issue the first time they meet. They're partway into dinner at her sister and brother-in-law's house when Tiffany suddenly stands up, announces she's leaving and asks Pat to walk her home. Pat complains about her poor social skills but complies anyway and when they reach her parents home, where she has an apartment in the back,  Tiffany very bluntly invites him to have sex with her. When the astonished Pat asks her "How old are you?", Tiffany snaps back sarcastically with a withering sneer "Old enough to have a marriage end and not wind up in a mental hospital."  Ouch!  Old enough ...  yes, Jennifer Lawrence is. David O. Russell's sharply crafted script helps.

Likewise Bradley Cooper didn't seem right for the part of Pat, the just-released bi-polar mental patient either. Would I believe Cooper as a former fatty? And why would I want to? I like his current image just fine. Silly surface details aside, he's great in The Hangover  what with the big sexy beast stuff. I knew he could play a smartass but I was doubtful he had the range to pull off bi-polar. I needn't have worried. Turns out he has immense range, displaying his The Actor's Studio training with gritty realism. I've read that Cooper has had, what he calls his demons, in the past and went straight about ten years ago. That's a very dark place to come out from; the "silver lining" for Cooper being that his own life is a gold mine of emotional experiences and responses he can access should he choose to dig that deep, which he does here. It's tough stuff but he doesn't flinch. He rages like a wild man gone off the rails and his baby blues go dark and threatening. There's a scene where he lashes out at his parents, accidentally striking his mother; the the remorse instantaneous in his eyes and deflated body posture. I just thought he nailed the entire spectrum and his pretty dimples were scarcely in sight until the ending. Which I LOVED.

Part of Cooper's success as Pat has to do with changes Russell made to Pat's character. In Quick's novel Pat has been put away for almost four years; in the film it's 8 months. "Eight months is long enough" says his mother when she signs him out and brings him home without telling her husband.  Eight months is long enough. Russell has said he has a similarly challenged son but that the novel's character of Pat, so deeply troubled that he's been institutionalized for four years wasn't someone he could know and understand.  Being away for 8 months, that he could understand. That essential fact made it easier to buy it for me too.  Pat from the book, with his psychotic episodes blown up on screen might just be too frightening for the audience to fall in love with. The somewhat subdued cinematic Pat ('somewhat' being the key word) as played by Cooper is still hobbled by his psyche but very lovable indeed.  My complaints from the book - Pat calling the institution 'the bad place' and the separation from his wife as 'apart time' which made him sound moronic - were gone as well.

Another change which works really well is Pat, Sr., played masterfully by Robert De Niro. The novel's father is cold and unloving, angrily ignoring Pat for a good chunk of the book before he finally warms up. Russell and De Niro's character is much more complex - a loving family man with 'Anger Management' and OCD issues of his own. I don't think De Niro has been this good in ages. Cooper and De Niro have an off screen friendship; their natural chemistry definitely showed and I completely bought them in this difficult father/son dynamic. Russell has pointed out De Niro also has a son with similar issues and that he, Cooper and De Niro all come from Italian - American backgrounds which he says helped their mutual understanding.

Pat's mother is played with such, I don't quite know what to call it, other than charismatic maternal realism, by Jacki Weaver, that I found myself drawn to her face whenever she was onscreen. She's got a tentative crooked smile that grounded her in this role of a mother desperate for her son to succeed. I googled Weaver and discovered she's Australian film royalty. Weaver has been acting since the mid-1960's but rocketed to fame with an Oscar nominated role in Animal Kingdom just two years back in 2010. Earlier this year you might have seen her in Rules of Engagement but maybe not since it was a flop at theaters. Anyway, forget about that because she has another half dozen films already in the post production process. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of her over the next couple of years. Such a surprise, and that's saying nothing about her master of the accent. I'm no expert but I hadn't a clue she wasn't an American born housewife from Philly. I just listened to her doing an interview on Australian TV. Oh, she's definitely from the land down under.  What a seriously talented woman; I feel like such an idiot for not knowing about her sooner.

The writer/director of The Fighter, David O. Russell is clearly familiar with the working class families he writes about.  One of the most impactful changes he made to the book was in how the patriarch of this particular working class family makes a living. True to the times - 2008 -  Russell has Pat Sr. lose his job and take up bookmaking to earn a living. That gambling element really ups the stakes and adds a whole new shimmery layer to the ending's silver lining.

But it's Russell's personal experience with mental health issues (his own son is bipolar) and how families deal with them that really stands out. I can't think of a better fit in terms of adaptations. Indeed, it feels as though this was his movie to make.

Russell spoke of being inspired by his son in a Writer's Guild of America Interview. I think the quote I excerpted says quite a bit about Russell and the love he feels for him.

"I’d been waiting a long time for something with characters who have dealt with the many issues my son has dealt with, so he could feel a part of the world, and Matthew Quick’s book hit on it. So I was able to make it very personal." 

That fatherly feeling, wanting his son to feel a part of the world is what we all want for our kids. In the Silver Linings Playbook, Pat's parents feel it. They are desperate for him to succeed. To find happiness. It's what we all want and we root for him all the way.  As you can imagine a film (or a book) titled Silver Linings Playbook has a happy ending. Never overdone or saccharine here, is the idea that family, friendship, love are the things that connect us, and often, the things that save us. That's our silver lining.   One of my favorite movies of the year.

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Behind the Scenes: Silver Linings Playbook

My take on the Silver Linings Playbook movie is still MIA but if you've seen the film, here's a link to an interview over at IndieWire with the film's editor, Jay Cassidy.  It's an interesting look behind the scenes and some plot points discussed so take this as a

SPOILER ALERT!

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The Silver Linings Playbook: My Take on the Book

Now that The Silver Linings Playbook film adaptation starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence has been released, I thought I'd repost my book review. I'll catch the movie as fast as I can!

The Silver Linings Play Book
By Matthew Quick

From the publisher:

Meet Pat Peoples. Pat has a theory: his life is a movie produced by God. And his God-given mission is to become physically fit and emotionally literate, whereupon God will ensure him a happy ending—the return of his estranged wife, Nikki. (It might not come as a surprise to learn that Pat has spent several years in a mental health facility.)

The problem is, Pat’s now home, and everything feels off. No one will talk to him about Nikki; his beloved Philadelphia Eagles keep losing; he’s being pursued by the deeply odd Tiffany; his new therapist seems to recommend adultery as a form of therapy. Plus, he’s being haunted by Kenny G!

As the award-winning novelist Justin Cronin put it: “Tender, soulful, hilarious, and true, The Silver Linings Playbook is a wonderful debut.”

My take on the book:

Despite a few things I hesitate to label as problems, I'll just call them glitches, I was taken with this book right from the first page. Actually from the first chapter title which is " An Infinite Amount of Days Until My Inevitable Reunion with Nikki "  What would you expect from a book in which the first sexy strains of Kenny G. can send the main character spiralling out of control?

The glitches? A couple of phrasing choices ---  everyone inexplicably calls the mental health facility that Pat has been in, "the bad place"  AND Pat labels his separation with Nikki as "apart time"  as in "When apart time is over ..." which I found extremely irritating as Pat is not a child, he is a 35 year old man. The phrases make him sound like a child (which he is emotionally at this point) but he's still an intelligent if misguided man who has suffered severe trauma and has buried the parts of his memory that would access the cause of that trauma, but the rest of his vocabulary is appropriate. I just don't get it.

The big glitch which I decided to disregard while reading is that after Pat comes home, his best friends' wife, Veronica (Julia Stiles), invites him to dinner, along with her sister, Tiffany, who is an extremely devastated and unstable widow. Quick paints Veronica as controlling and not a huge Pat fan so it's bizarre to think she would willingly set up her troubled sister with her husbands dangerously troubled best friend. Especially because she is Tiffany's "designated support buddy and therefore has weekly phone conversations with Tiffany's therapist". Is that the kind of man - mentally unstable - that a therapist would recommend Tiffany get involved with? I don't buy it. BUT putting that aside, buying it anyway, Pat and Tiffany begin a strange friendship which involves a lot of running, and training for a dance competition.

His main goal is to get his wife back. We don't know why but there are mutual restraining orders in place. Obviously some heavy stuff went down for the restraining orders to be initiated as well as putting Pat away for a time period that he thinks has been a few months. Over the course of the book we get a more accurate look at just how long he has been away.

We also get good looks at the people in his life; his unconditionally loving mother who seems to devote herself to her son rather than deal with her beyond grouchy spouse (played by Robert Deniro in the film). Danny (Chris Tucker), his "black friend" from "the bad place". His therapist who likes to be called by his first name, Cliff. His brother. And most importantly Tiffany and Nikki. While there are some unbelievable aspects to the story and some hilariously out there characters, the heart of the tale is poignant and powerful.

I'm looking forward to seeing Bradley Cooper as Pat but am a bit worried that he will be able to capture Pat's inner turmoil. His vulnerability. I have no doubt he will be able to capture his anger; that's clear from the trailer. We are in his head all through the book so I'm curious to see how the writer and director handled that without reverting to an endless voice over.

Tiffany is a bit older than Pat in the book but as played by Jennifer Lawrence that's not the case. Since there's nothing about her character that dictates she needs to be older, it seems like it was an arbitrary writer's call so I'm sure the young Jennifer Lawrence will be fine.

The movie tie-in paperback edition of the book comes out October 16th when it will retail for $15. I just read it on my Nook for $9.99. The film comes out November 21st. It was a quick enjoyable 230 odd pages. Predictable? Sure. But pleasantly so.

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Bradley Cooper's Very Good Day

Earlier I blogged about Bradley Cooper's current release The Words which I saw yesterday. The film has been received poorly by critics and filmgoers alike. But if Cooper was feeling a bit down about his Rotten Tomato score, he has no need to. Today, direct from Toronto, where The Place Beyond the Pines, the film where Cooper costars along with lovebirds Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes, was quickly snapped up by Focus, we learn that success strikes again.

The Silver Linings Playbook, which also stars Jennifer Lawrence and Robert DeNiro,  has won the Peoples Choice Award. Winning is kind of a big deal and should cheer Cooper up.
Its a big deal because in the past other films earning the same nod, Slumdog Millionaire, The King's Speech, American Beauty, went on to take the top prize at the Oscars. Written and directed by David O. Russell, (I Heart Huckabee, The Fighter, Three Kings) the film is currently set for release on November 21, just in time for Thanksgiving break. You can read My Take on the book by Matthew Quick here and a little chatter about the book cover vs the movie poster here and still more about Cooper's big year here.

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The Words: My take on the movie starring Bradley Cooper

I didn't need to read any reviews to know The Words was not supposed to be very good.  The verdict was in the air. I knew it but I wanted to see it anyway. Unlike most of the movies I blog about, this one wasn't based on a book BUT the storyline is all about books and writers so I really wanted to see it and share my thoughts with you. 

It begins with Hammond (Dennis Quaid) reading to a large crowd from his newest best seller The Words. The story he tells is the one you already know from the trailer: an unpublished writer (Bradley Cooper) finds a manuscript and passes it off as his own. Naturally it's a mega success. The Old Man ( an ancient looking Jeremy Irons) who actually wrote the manuscript recognizes it as his work - Cooper's character hasn't changed a comma from the originial - and confronts him. The Old Man then tells Cooper the story of how he came to write and lose the manuscript in Paris years ago. It's all about the woman he loves.

Ben Barnes and Nora Arnezeder in The Words

Thanks to glorious cinematography from Antonio Calvache, The Words looked beautiful. The post World WarII Paris scenes were especially gorgeous. Not surprising, he was the DP on Todd Fields also beautiful looking films, Little Children and In The Bedroom. 

The actors did their best. Bradley Cooper plays aginst type as Rory, the writer who plagiarizes an entire book. I'm not sure I would buy Cooper as a serious writer BUT as a writer who seems a little lazy and loses his moral compass? Yes, that works. 

Zoe Saldana was fine as the wife who spends a lot of time draped all over him. Can you blame her?

Jeremy Irons is The Old Man, the writer whose book was stolen. Irons is one of our most gifted, albeit not flamboyant actors; he's always spot on and didn't disappoint me here. Except perhaps in the gardening scene; watch it and you'll probably see what I mean. Clip clip. His old-aged makeup was really well done unless Irons is more of an old geezer than I recall. Ben Barnes who plays the younger version of the old man is an exciting young new face to watch. For me the only exception in terms of the acting, was Olivia Wilde, miscast as a lit loving grad student hanging on the every word of Clay Hammond, the best selling author played cynically by Dennis Quaid.

The major problem with the movie was the story and its ponderous format: an utterly unnecessary device which framed a story within a story within a story. I just couldn't help thinking why the heck the Dennis Quaid/Olivia Wilde scenes were even in the film. We certainly didn't need the outer framework of a writer reading his book about another writer stealing another writer's work. Yuck!
And their seduction story was just a lil' bit sleazy.

The basic theme, at what emotional cost does one cross that ethical line, is a really interesting one; I think they could have developed it more fully if they'd cut the Quaid/Wilde scenes completely. The story is the problem so it's no surprise it was written and directed by a pair of practically first timers, Ben Klugman and Lee Sternthal - they previously wrote the story (not the screenplay) the film TRON is based on. Would it surprise you to know that Cooper and Klugman went Germantown Academy, a Philadelphia high school together? Which is how the movie must have been given the greenlight in the first place. I think it's admirable that Cooper is loyal to Klugman; apparently they've helped each other fight their own personal demons over the years - the 37 year old Cooper has been straight and sober since he was 29. And I applaud Klugman and Sternthal for trying to write a serious, layered film. Unfortunately when you peel away the layers, there's not that much left to sustain you.

While I clearly can't recommend this as a great movie - or even a very good movie - I wouldn't say I hated it. I always enjoy peeking into the world of writers and any trip to Paris, even a side trip, is a good trip to Paris. And mostly not long enough. There was even a moment during the Paris in World War II scenes where I shed a tear. But I confess to crying easily, my emotional buttons are easily pushed. Ah oui, I would probably save it for a rainy netflix day.
How about you?
What are your favorite movies set - at least partially - in Paris?

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Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence in SERENA

Yesterday I posted the trailer for the upcoming Bradley Cooper/Jennifer Lawrence movie The Silver Linings Playbook. Here's a picture from their other  movie, Serena, based on Ron Rash's novel of the same name. They started shooting the movie this past April in Prague; it's in post right now and is expected to come out early in 2013.
I haven't read the book yet.
Here's what Collider says the movie is about.
MAJOR SPOILER ALERT
The film follows newlyweds George (Cooper) and Serena Pemberton (Lawrence) who travel from Boston to the mountains of North Carolina where they begin to build a timber empire in 1929. Serena soon shows herself to be the equal of any man: overseeing crews, hunting rattle-snakes, even saving a man’s life in the wilderness. Together, this king and queen rule their dominion, killing or vanquishing all who stand in the way of their ambitions. But when Serena learns that she can never bear a child, she sets out to murder the woman who bore George a son before his marriage. And when she starts to suspect that George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons’ intense, passionate marriage begins to unravel as the story moves toward its shocking reckoning.

Have you read the book? What do you think of Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper as George and Serena?

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Bradley Cooper is Sexy AND Serious?!

Wow but Bradley Cooper is a busy guy. He's got The Words coming out in September (I just posted the trailer yesterday) AND he is in two upcoming films based on books. I am going to have to rethink my feelings about the dimpled, blue-eyed Cooper (I am one of those people who think that Ryan Gosling, not Cooper, should have won People's Sexiest Actor award) because he is making some really interesting and intriguing choices in his movie roles, choices that surprise me coming from The Hangover star!

First out in late November, after The Words will be The Silver Linings Playbook based on Matthew Quick's debut novel (boy, that was quick!) and directed by Oscar nominated (The Fighter, I heart Huckabees, Three Kings)David O. Russell. Cooper plays Pat, a former mental patient. Apparently Russell a bit of a crazy person himself so perhaps he's uniquely qualified to handle this one. George Clooney famously took to fisticuffs with Russell on the set of Three Kings to defend a hapless background actor and he's quasi-famous on YouTube for a yelling match on the the set of Huckabees.
Anyway, here's what Barnes and Noble have posted on their site.

Meet Pat Peoples. Pat has a theory: his life is a movie produced by God. And his God-given mission is to become physically fit and emotionally literate, whereupon God will ensure him a happy ending—the return of his estranged wife, Nikki. (It might not come as a surprise to learn that Pat has spent several years in a mental health facility.) The problem is, Pat’s now home, and everything feels off. No one will talk to him about Nikki; his beloved Philadelphia Eagles keep losing; he’s being pursued by the deeply odd Tiffany; his new therapist seems to recommend adultery as a form of therapy. Plus, he’s being haunted by Kenny G!

Jennifer Lawrence plays the odd Tiffany and Robert De Niro plays his father. Julia Stiles, Chris Tucker, and Jacki Weaver also star.

I'll post the trailer here and would love to know what you think.

And in my next post I'll show you the first picture from the movie Serena based on the book by Ron Rash, again starring Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.  

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A couple of movies about writers: Ruby Sparks and The Words

Usually I blog about movies based on books, and the books those movies are based on. But there are a couple of movies I'm pretty intrigued to see that are not adaptations of novels. Of course I see movies that aren't based on books all the time but I rarely talk about them here. For example, last night my husband and I saw The Dark Knight Rises and while I won't go into it here, suffice it to say we were both blown away. And kleenex was involved. That's all.
Anyway, I thought you, as readers and writer types, would be interested in these two films that aren't based on books. Ruby Sparks, out in theaters now, as well as The Words, out in September.
Why?
Because they are both about writers. In Ruby Sparks, Paul Dano plays a writer named Calvin who falls in love with his own creation and manifests her into being with his mind. My son saw it and thinks I will love this movie so I'm going to check it out. Paul Dano's girlfriend, Zoe Kazan, actually wrote the script and stars in it as Ruby Sparks. Oh and she happens to be Elia Kazan's granddaughter  (On the Waterfront, Streetcar Named Desire, East of Eden - the list of impressive works from this iconic director goes on and on.) Screenwriting is in her blood, her parents are both successful screenwriters too! The film also has some great actors like Annette Bening, Elliot Gould and Antonio Banderas. Here's the trailer:

The other film is The Words in which Bradley Cooper plays a writer who can't write. He finds an old briefcase with a manuscript in it. Of course he pinches it and passes it off as his own. And then the real author, played by Jeremy Irons, comes to call. Sounds intriguing and the trailer looks pretty good too.
Check out the trailer and see what you think.

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