David O. Russell («The Fighter») erfreut mit einer liebenswürdigen kleinen Erzählung mit präzisen Dialogen und Darstellern, die Freude daran haben, emotionale Wracks zu spielen, die ein bisschen gestört und wahnsinnig komisch sind. Jennifer Lawrence bekam für ihre Leistung den Oscar als beste Hauptdarstellerin.

American Madness at its best. Nichts ist so durchgeknallt wie die ganz gewöhnliche Familie - weil sie aus lauter lieben fürsorglichen Menschen besteht. Bradley Cooper kommt aus der Anstalt heim, Jennifer Lawrence will ihn haben. Sie springt ihm in die Arme, furioses Finale! David O. Russell inszeniert so fetzig, dass sogar Robert De Niro mit den Ohren schlackert.

Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper) is in a bit of a blue funk. It’s not enough that he was confined to a mental institution after catching his wife with another man and nearly beating the guy to death. Now this turbulently bipolar blunderer is emerging from his time away with no job, no house (back to Mom and Dad he goes!) and pariah status among everyone except the really cute, emotionally disturbed girl next door (Jennifer Lawrence).

Sounds like a recipe for a bad ol’ Indiewood melodrama, right? But the primary pleasure of this black romantic comedy, adapted by writer-director David O. Russell from Matthew Quick’s novel, is how jagged-edged everything is, with a stellar group of actors spouting overlapping, acid-tongued dialogue like their lives depended on it. This shouldn’t be surprising for those familiar with Russell’s singular cinema-of-hysteria: Beginning with his incest-farce feature debut, Spanking the Monkey (1994), the filmmaker has created a uniquely discomfiting body of work that explores distinctly American neuroses with bracing specificity and frequent hilarity. (Extract)