The Silver Linings Playbook Synopsis & Summary

The quirky, humorous feature The Silver Linings Playbook concerns a man released from a sanitarium after a mental breakdown. Though he feels bound and determined to look on the bright side of things -- the "silver linings" of the title -- he also experiences a break from reality, sinking into a mire of complete denial about his wife's decision to leave him and remarry another man. Despondent, the former patient moves back in with his folks and strikes up a friendship with a sad dumpling of a woman who agrees to act as an intercessor between him and his wife. This film originated with an unpublished novel by a former East Coast lit professor, Matthew M. Quick, who sent his unsolicited manuscript in to a literary agent and culled a massive amount of interest, signing a deal with an imprint of the esteemed Farrar, Straus and Giroux; producers Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella subsequently bought the option prior to the actual publication of the novel. - Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide