Thank God for moderate expectations. Silver Linings Playbook was much better than I anticipated. Pat (Bradley Cooper) remains undiagnosed with bipolar personality disorder until he finds his wife in the shower cheating with a colleague from work. Pat almost kills the man. His lawyer manages to keep him out of prison by letting the state lock him up in a mental hospital.

Eight months later his mother convinced the state to let him come home and live with mom and pop. Pat is still totally in love with his wife who is not allowed to even contact because of a restraining order. His only goal is to become fully stable and win her back. But this is not easy. Little things can set him off in a rage.  The film manages to portray life of middle class America very well and how challenging it is for families do deal with mental illness. The film has a happy ending unlike many other cases of mental disease. Jennifer Lawrence won the Oscar for best actress trying to get Pat back on track. Here Hollywood went for youth over the much better acting of Emmanuelle Riva who played the decaying lady in the film Amour. Or maybe Hollywood went for the uplifting rather than sad story.