Silver Linings Playbook

This beguilingly offbeat love story was adapted by idiosyncratic director David O Russell (The Fighter, American Hustle) from the debut novel by Matthew Quick. Bradley Cooper gives a career-changing performance as Pat, a bipolar divorcé returning to his larger-than-life suburban Philadelphia family after a spell in a mental health clinic. After a chance meeting, he partners up with Jennifer Lawrence's fellow neurotic Tiffany (also keenly played) to train hard for a dance competition that promises to prove therapeutic for them both. An accumulative betting subplot involving real-life team the Philadelphia Eagles, driven by Pat's roguish dad (Robert De Niro, in a rare autumnal role of substance), stokes the dramatic trajectory towards the ballroom-dance-off, which is much more surprising than your standard Hollywood ending, despite certain conventions. This is a genuinely unusual, bittersweet romance that also boasts some terrific choreography.