METHOD IN THE MADNESS (SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK)

It's an early Oscar front runner and it wowed the Toronto Film Festival.

David O Russell's 'Silver Linings Playbook' has hit our cinema screens and is sharply dividing critics.

The Observer's veteran film critic, Philip French was amused by it, while the Daily Telegraph's Robbie Collin denounced it as corny, contrived and cheap.

Danny Leigh railed against it on BBC1's Film 2012 while his co-host Claudia Winkelman gushed about it (but then again, she has a tendency to gush about most movies).

Based on a novel by Matthew Quick, Bradley Cooper plays a damaged Philadelphia high school history teacher, Pat Solitano who is bipolar.

At the start of the film, he is discharged from the mental health institution in Baltimore he has been consigned to by the courts after a vicious assault on his wife's lover.

It is clear from the off that Pat's mother, Dolores (Australian actress Jacki Weaver) is taking a huge gamble by bringing him home - he refuses to take his meds, is still obsessing about getting back together with his wife and is prone to violent outbursts and mood swings.

Stevie Wonder's 'Ma Cherie Amour', which was his wedding song but was also playing when he caught his wife her lover in the shower, can trigger violent mood swings.

On top of that, he has a strained relationship with his father, Pat Snr (Robert de Niro), an obsessive compulsive Philadelphia Eagles fan who thinks his son might be the team's lucky charm but is banned from attending NFL Games following a violent outburst at one match.

Pat Jr has an awkward but loving relationship as well with his successful older brother, Jake (Shea Whigham).

Cooper's character obsessively jogs wearing a bin bag around him to keep off the weight he lost in the institution and he constantly reads books on the English literature curriculum his wife teaches, thinking it might help win her back.

The community is either wary of him or ridicules him.

He soon encounters another damaged soul at a dinner organised by his friend, Ronnie (John Ortiz) and his wife Veronica (Julia Styles) and forges a turbulent friendship with police widow Tiffany Maxwell (Jennifer Lawrence). They initially bond through their shared experience of mental illness and medication.

She persuades him to be her partner in a 'Strictly Come Dancing' competition in exchange for a promise to pass on a letter to his estranged wife, who has a restraining order against him.

But will Pat's scheme work? Will the letter rekindle his marriage?

'Silver Linings Playbook' is David O. Russell's follow-up to his Oscar nominated drama 'The Fighter' which starred Mark Whalberg and Amy Adams and nabbed acting gongs in 2010 for Christian Bale and Melissa Leo.

Russell has consistently demonstrated over the years with movies like the Ben Stiller comedy 'Flirting With Disaster', the George Clooney Gulf War caper 'Three Kings' and 'I Heart Huckabees' that he is an assured and stylish director who can wring out effective performances from starry casts.

And it has to be said, 'Silver Linings Playbook' is no exception.

After a series of lazy turns from 'The Hangover' to 'The A Team', Bradley Cooper finally sinks his teeth into a meaty role and turns in the most committed (no pun intended) performance of his career.

He feeds off a strong supporting cast, helped by Weaver, Whigham, Ortiz, Styles, Anupam Kher as Dr Patel and (and I never thought I'd write this after the dreadful 'Rush Hour' movies) Chris Tucker who turns in a well judged comic performance as Pat's friend Danny, who keeps escaping from the mental health facility.

There are even glimpses of the old fire in Robert de Niro in the type of role we have seen him in countless times before - the angry, bewildered dad.

Like Woody Allen, each de Niro movie and performance is measured against the heady heights he achieved in the early half of his career.

Unfortunately there have been many, many lows over the past 15 years.

The de Niro of 'Silver Linings Playbook' looks older, more fatigued and craggy and while his performance may not burn with the same intensity as performances in movies as diverse as 'Taxi Driver', 'Raging Bull', 'Midnight Run' or 'The Mission', it still shows the Method actor is alive and well.

But if there is one person who steals the show it has to be Jennifer Lawrence who turns in a nuanced performance as the tough talking yet brittle Tiffany. She brings a real depth to a difficult role.

Russell, who adapted Quick's novel for the screen, walks a tightrope between heavy blue collar drama and quirky comedy.

There are moments in the movie when you fear that he might just plunge into corny humour or too much plodding darkness.

But he does a remarkable job treading the tightrope and he is aided by some wonderful sweeping camera work by Masanobu Takayanagi and Jay Cassidy's confident editing.

It is refreshing to see a movie tackle directly mental health issues.

While Pat and Tiffany are at times ridiculed as "whack jobs" by those around them because of their spells in institutions, the film shows how those around them are also just a hop, skip or a jump away from similar breakdowns.

Gambling figures large in the movie, literally and metaphorically, and it serves as a parable about gambling on those who society would tend to write off.

Not only is 'Silver Linings Playbook' worth seeing, it could well be worth a bet come Oscar time.

('Silver Linings Playbook' opened in UK and Irish cinemas on November 21, 2012. This review originally appeared on Eamonnmallie.com)