Safety Not Guaranteed

This film is based around an actual classified ad about a chap looking for someone to travel back in time with him.

Presumably it was placed as a joke but the film has a journalist called Jeff (Jake Johnson) investigating the ad, to find out who is behind it but more importantly to find out how crazy they are. Jeff takes with him two less than eager interns Darius (Aubrey Plaza) and Arnau (Karan Soni).

They can do most of the leg work because Jeff's own interest is limited. He has an ulterior motive for going; he intends to go back in time himself because the town they are heading for is where his ex-girlfriend from college lives. He doesn't need a time machine to attempt to start up with her again, just a good excuse.

Once there the three of them take the odd approach of not actually replying to the ad but instead stalking the guy by finding out where he lives and works, then asking him outright if they can be his time travel partner. When Jeff has no success, Darius has a go.

Kenneth (Mark Duplass) is undoubtedly the local misfit but Darius finds him oddly appealing and the more time she spends with him, the more of a connection she forms with him. He's going back to 2001 to save a girlfriend who was killed in a car accident. Only she wasn't and as we find out, still lives nearby. Darius has her own reasons for wanting to travel back, to prevent the death of her Mother.

Meanwhile Jeff achieves his aim, gets to hook up with his ex, beds her and then falls out with her. Making it all a bit pointless plot wise. There's another sub-plot concerning Arnau. He's painted as your typical nerd in horned-rimmed glasses who is uncomfortable with women. So Jeff sets him up with some girls.

Although largely unnecessary these diversions follow the same sort of theme e.g. looking at relationships involving people who are quite different e.g. nerds, misfits/weirdoes, damaged females or annoying jerks in Jeff’s case, saying perhaps we should just accept people as they are. This does take screen time from the main story, which, to be honest, is the old one of where the damaged female falls for the misfit. Yep, I've just duped myself into seeing another RomCom.

This one though does have good characters. It's also better written and has more to offer than what you might expect. The time travel angle is more a façade for finding oneself and putting right past mistakes.

There is a time machine but we don't see it until the end. Thankfully. Which means the film doesn’t take too big a leap into the unbelievable. Kenneth stretches out his hand for Darius to join him aboard, asking her to decide whether he’s a genius or simply completely nuts... He may be both.

Finally kudos to Mark Duplass, who not only starred but co-produced and supplied the song to accompany the closing credits. A busy guy.

Silver Linings Playbook

We're at Cineworld tonight on a ‘2 for 1’. Not that it is easy to get. They won’t accept our e-tickets because their scanner is broke and send us on a second gym workout of the day around the helter skelter insides of the Cornerhouse. Bit of a farce really.

We get in eventually, late but far earlier than most of the other customers, many of which arrive up to half an hour after the advertised start. They are obviously more frequent Cineworld visitors than us because they know exactly how long the tedious adverts go on for.

Luckily tonight’s file ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ is well worth the wait. Written and directed by David O Russell, who made last year's memorable 'The Fighter', it is based on a book by Matthew Quick.

In it we follow Pat (Bradley Cooper) as he moves back in with his parents after spending eight months in a mental institution because of a violent outburst that occurred when he found a history teacher in his shower. Which isn't too outburst worthy until you realise this wife was in there too and their wedding song was playing on the stereo. A perfectly understandable reaction if you ask me.

Although now diagnosed as bipolar Pat is determined to get his life back on track and that includes reconciliation with his wife, Nikki (Brea Bee). There’s one major obstacle to this, she has taken out a restraining order against him. This though is something he thinks he can work round, just got to stay positive and look for the silver linings in life.

His recovery doesn’t seem to be going that well when he bursts into his parents’ bedroom at 4am ranting about Ernest Hemingway's failure to provide a happy ending to his novel ‘A Farewell to Arms’ before flinging the book through the (closed) bedroom window.

He may however be saner than his father (Robert De Niro), who himself has been prone to the odd violent outburst, getting himself banned from attending the Philadelphia Eagles games. He is totally OCD about the Eagles, bets on their games (he’s a bookie), wants his Pat to watch them with him as a good luck charm and to further Father-Son bonding.

A dinner party organised by his friend Ronnie, and Ronnie’s wife Veronica... introduces him to his saviour, although he wasn’t to know that then. This is the rather tasty Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence aka Katniss from The Hunger Games). She too has issues to deal with after the death of her husband. Seriously depressed by such a tragic event, her method of coping was to sleep her way through eleven colleagues at her office. That includes a woman, a fact that fascinates Pat. As he walks her back to her parents' converted garage where she lives, she offers him instant gratuitous sex but he is appalled and declines, one would assume because he's still hung up on his wife.

They forge a very unconventional friendship, often while jogging/arguing around the local neighbourhood. Him in his bin liner, her in an ever increasing selection of interesting Lycra. Though Pat maintains his distance, Tiffany is certainly looking for more than friendship and she agrees to deliver a letter to Nikki on Pat’s behalf if he helps her out... by agreeing to be her partner in a dance contest.

OMG, don’t do that, don’t dance. My partner will think I've brought her to a rom-com. They do though, Pat figures that not only will this enable him to communicate with his estranged wife; it will also impress her and show her how well he is recovering.

I thought this film would be complex but it isn't. The film is exactly what you would expect from one about bipolar men, depressed women, OCD fathers, American Football and ballroom dancing with a nod to Hemingway but I didn't expect it to be romantic. Well at least it’s ripped up the rom-com rule book. Then bugger, there's a happy ending as well, as these two damaged souls heal each other through their dancing... sounds dreadful doesn’t it.

It’s a great film though, great dialogue and some really great scenes. It just goes to show that despite everything, despite the dancing, there’s a silver lining in all of us, and never mind how quirky/complicated/weird the girl is, don’t worry about it (n.b. they’re all like that).

Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper are both terrific. They are two central characters neither of which you want to throttle, which is a rarity these days. You care about what happens to them. The supporting cast is good too and it’s especially good to Robert De Niro with a great performance still in him.

Like Russell’s ‘The Fighter’ this surely will also be up for a few awards.