Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook: Romantic Comedy or Psychological Stalker Silver Linings Playbook is an intriguing film about a former teacher named Pat that moves back in with his parents after a stint in a mental institution; in hopes of reconciling with his ex-wife, he actually falls in love with a mysterious girl named Tiffany (IMDb). Silver Linings Playbook is also described to, “walk a tricky thematic tightrope, but David O. Russell’s sensitive direction and some sharp work from a talented cast gives it true balance” (Rotten Tomatoes). Although the movie Silver Linings Playbook by David O. Russell is classified in the Romantic Comedy genre, the psychotic personalities and the stalker themes classify the movie in the Psychological Stalker genre

Although the Stalker genre is not as prominent as the Psychological genre, the main trope that is included in this Stalker genre is the Stalker with a Crush trope (Tvtropes). After meeting Pat, Tiffany tracks him down by asking his mom for the most common place to find Pat (Tvtropes). Tiffany ends up tracking him down almost every time he goes out for a run. Pursuing him in hopes of initially scaring him, she hunts him down and makes him talk. We can see through this action the qualities of Tiffany’s perseverance to interact with

One of the major tropes with this is the Reluctant Psycho (Tvtropes). The main part of Silver Linings Playbook is Pat’s slow realization that he is reluctant to realize his psychotic attributes. With this, Pat has random outbursts that include disturbing the whole neighborhood and causing harm to his family members. While meeting with his therapist, Pat struggles with the reality of his psychotic outbursts and has trouble admitting that he needs help. The Insane Equals Violent trope coincides with this trope because of Pat’s reluctance towards normalization (Tvtropes). Because Pat is insane, he is violent. This is demonstrated in the few cases that occur in the movie. One episode included when Pat’s therapist played his wedding song in the lobby of the therapist office (Silver Linings Playbook). His therapist knew the song was a trigger for him, thus wanting to see his reaction, he played the song (Silver Linings Playbook). I believe this also happens with Tiffany. Extremely damaged by the death of her husband, Tiffany’s psychotic attributes come into play. And, because of her insane qualities, she is somewhat violent. Her outbursts might not include a big amount of physical harm, but the emotional harm she brings onto Pat is very apparent. One example of this, is her reaction after their “date”. Not convinced the date is actually a date, Pat orders Raisin Bran in efforts to confirm this (Silver Linings Playbook).