I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Maybe this is a biased review and the film itself does not deserve 8 stars but what the heck, Bradley Cooper deserves all those stars for such a nuanced and wonderful performance! I always thought of him as this hot dude from that overrated Hangover movie or the cool guy who did a lot of fancy walking in American Hustle, but in this film he is simply amazing! He gives an incredibly believable and controlled performance as the guy suffering from bipolar disorder who is trying to get better. Added bonus-he can dance too! Wow! Jennifer Lawrence is kinda refreshing. I usually hate De Niro in anything other than in mafia movies but he wasn't bad either. The only bad casting choice was the therapist who was not at all convincing. Best part is they kept the story to the central characters and their motivations rather than making it about circumstances. The characters in this film never play the victim card and are constantly trying to improve their lives. The other good thing about the film is that it never got too sentimental or preachy. It stayed light and entertaining throughout.

After watching the movie I peeked at the reviews and was surprised that many people were upset that the movie didn't display a person dealing with such things realistically. Personally, I think their behaviour fit well with the genre and general mood of the movie and I didn't find it entirely odd (though there were some holes in the plot that were overlooked).The movie was missing the lows of the bipolar state but as I can see they didn't go for a realistical portrayal this is fair. I think the heights were somewhat there - the naivety that he's going to get his wife back, his attempts to get better or her motivation to deceive him about Nikky's letters. Some of their irrational behaviour was on spot. Everyone was a tad ill which added on the comedy factor. This is by no means a serious movie.Illness aside, the plot definitely had some issues. We don't learn what he says to Nikky at the end (which should be important to us) for one, and it's highly unrealistic that she would go seeing him after she cheated on him. I think they missed to add some more dramatic scenes for us to see the two protagonist resolve their past, so we'd get a closure - this stage was completely skipped and they moved from being sick to being fine in one go.The acting was nice and I had fun watching it despite the holes in the plot, although it's not worth rewatching.

This movie isn't about second chances, It's about following a dream that you want, It's about catch the right moment of the life. Maybe you don't know what do you want at first, but when you realize, you must do everything for it. This movie changed me a little bit, gave me motivation to moving forward to the better me. I believe in EXCELSIOR, I believe in happy endings and I believe in Silver Linings.

I absolutely hated this film. I am amazed to hear it was meant to be a comedy. I only lasted 40 minutes or so. The company of mentally ill people behaving like sad lunatics is hardly agreeable, certainly not where they are behaving in a totally ridiculous manner all the time. I can only echo what reviewer Pinko 2004 wrote:'This film contains a horrific depiction of mental illness that objectifies human beings as caricatures. Cooper's character, who is supposedly the film's primary protagonist, is portrayed in such a disturbing way that an uninformed viewer could not be blamed for thinking that those who are bipolar - a very real illness with very real, good people who suffer from it - are all miserable, violent people who obsess over others to the point of stalking them.'Absolutely! Hated it, hated it, hated it!