The first time we see De Niro's character is at the beginning of the film, when Pat returns from the hospital. I must say I was a little bit disappointed after it. I've been expecting something really outstanding, something close to De Niro's best performances. When I understood, it's not going to be very juicy part, I was ready to fully enjoy his subtle performance. But somehow I didn't enjoy it very much.
You may say he didn't have many things to do in Silver Linings Playbook. And you'd be definitely right. The only thing he's there to, is to complain about Pat and talk about football. But he has got some scenes, he could use and be more than just 'decent'. For example, the scene he's crying in. It wasn't bad, but I felt as if he was playing a different character in this scene. It doesn't correspond with the rest of his performance.
Even his best scene, in my opinion, is not Oscar-worthy. It's the scene the picture above is from.
I understand what De Niro wanted to do with this character. He wanted to play it realisticly. But it just isn't. Mostly because the script just isn't realistic, but also because of him. Instead of being realistic, he was just lackluster. You really won't remember his performance two weeks after watching the film. And I'm not even talking about the fact, that the chemistry between him and Weaver is really bad.
The chances of winning an Oscar: He's the third. I would be very surprised (and upset), if he won.
Well I think I liked him a little more than you did. I would not say he had bad chemistry with Weaver though, since they barely interact anyway. Still there isn't anything special here, and I would agree he is pretty forgettable.
ReplyDeleteThe badness of their chemistry is in the fact that there is no chemistry. Even in the scenes at the beginning where they just have to interact. Almost as if they didn't know each other. But that's not just his fault, therefore I wasn't writing about that so much...
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