Movie Analysis: Silver Linings Playbook

In this activity report, I will be analyzing the different components of emotions, the process of listening, the different relational stages and the different dialectic tensions that the viewers are exposed to within the movie, Silver Linings Playbook. This movie has quite a lot of material to analyze due to the events that occur in the plot.

Silver Linings playbook is a movie about a Bipolar man named Pat Solatano, who had an anger lapse, when he found his wife cheating on him with a coworker. 8 months after being in a mental institution, he met a widow named tiffany, who turned to sex in order to satisfy the pain she feels towards her late husband’s death. The two characters find a way to help each other while their lives are in shambles.

She agrees to deliver a letter to his wife in hopes to reconnect with her, even though she has a restraining order against him, if he competes in a dance competition with her. However at the end, we find that he falls in love with Tiffany & gains the closure he needed with Nicki (his ex wife). Due to the unique personalities of the two characters, the way in which they communicate and convey messages are quite unconventional, this will be explored throughout this report.

The main character Pat Solatano will be the main focus as in many scenes in this movie, it becomes quite clear to us that he is mentally ill. Within the first ten minutes of the movie, he grows very angry & this scene will be analyzed, showing the different components of emotions that Pat goes through within the scene. The first time the viewers are exposed to seeing Pat in therapy, it becomes very clear that he is in a completely different stage of relationship dissolution than his wife, this will be analyzed through Mark L Knapp’s relationship development theory.

In one of the first scenes of the movie, after reading a Hemingway book, Pat Solatano barges into his parents bedroom, angrily complaining about the plot of the book he read. In this scene, the character portrays the different components of emotions. Pat’s self perception in this scene, is the fact that he doesn’t see the fact that what he is really angry at is the way his life turned out, he doesn’t realize that he is claiming to be angry at the plot of a book rather than the unfortunate events of his life, he even says in the scene ‘Hemingway is to blame’. As for physiology of emotion, at this point in time, it is clear that his heart is racing from the way he is acting. The nonverbal markers of emotion could be the fact that he is looking a little flushed due to his anger. Lastly, the action tendencies component would be the fact that he barged into his parents’ bedroom at 4 in the morning, vented while pacing, therefore it is clear that he is angry, as if someone were nonchalant or even a little sad about the plot of a book, they would most likely wait until the next day to talk to others about it, however when one is angry their sense of judgment seems to be overshadowed by their anger.

When Pat went into the therapist’s office for the first time in the movie, it instantly becomes clear to the viewers that he is in the stagnation stage as he starts blaming his wife for the incident. He explains how she played their wedding song while cheating on him with another guy, therefore I believe he is still in the stagnation stage as he is talking about the issue that changed everything however he still wants her back, as he expresses this to his parents and still wears his wedding ring, therefore still has hope that their relationship could be saved. While from the beginning of the movie it is clear to us that the wife is in the terminating stage, as during the 8 months he was in the mental institution, they had already moved out and sold the house.

In the scene where Pat meets tiffany for the first time is quite an interesting listening process. I say this because it was a little abnormal due to Pat’s unique way of communicating, in this scene they meet and greet each other, Pat goes on to call her beautiful, however elaborates on the meaning of what he said. In the Attending stage both parties knew that they were to greet each other and shake hands. In the interpreting stage, Pat felt curious as to how Tiffany’s husband died therefore asked her regardless of how inappropriate and insensitive this was. In the remembering stage, Pat remembered that his friend told him about the fact that Tiffany’s husband died &to avoid such a question at all costs however he had disregarded this. Pat went on to ask her a few questions as he saw that her facial expression changed dramatically when he asked about her deceased husband, he did this by asking about her job, when she informed him that she just got fired he was in the responding stage as he asked her how and apologized. This could have been both the evaluating and responding stage as by asking her how she lost her job he could be trying to evaluate whether her losing her job is true or not.

The last aspect that will be analyzed will be the relational dialectics between tiffany and Pat, even though they are extremely unconventional, I found there to be material to analyze concerning this aspect of intercultural communication.
I feel that the scene of the diner, which was the first time Pat agreed to create a sort of relationship with Tiffany.

In this scene, we see that they are both quite open about their past, which most people would find hard to share, therefore the dialectic tension of openness/privacy, specifically concerning internal dialectics is emphasized, as they seem to share too much, without having to doubt whether the information they are sharing is too sensitive. The second and only other dialectic tension that is portrayed within the movie is the fact that we saw that every time Pat would run, Tiffany would run and try to communicate with him therefore this could be an example of novelty/predictability dialectic as even though she knew where and when he ran, the reason she would do it is because she was very curious and wanted to know more about

him.

I believe that once it comes to interpersonal interactions all aspects are important, however there are some more important than others, as a certain aspect of interpersonal interactions will lead to the next dynamic. I believe that the most important part of interpersonal interaction is the emotional aspect, I say this with certainty because every action taken is lead by emotions, for example in the movie observed, the reason Tiffany started screaming out he is harassing me is due to feeling embarrassed and angry. The next most important aspect I believe to be quite crucial is the way one goes about developing or the dissolution of the relationship, for example when Nicky felt that her relationship with her husband was going nowhere, she chose to cheat on him rather than speak to him about it. The last most important aspect within interpersonal interactions is dialectic tension, as if one were to share too much (just as Tiffany did in the beginning of the movie) they may risk the feeling of embarrassment or make themselves vulnerable to the other person.

Even though I found this movie to be quite unconventional in the way that the main characters choose to communicate and act towards each other, however this put things into perspective and somehow made the movie seem more relatable to reality as no two people are perfect in their way of communicating or expressing, in fact I believe that all people have these issues which is why there is a tendency for us all to break bonds with certain people and make new bonds with others.

I believe that the root issue in all interpersonal interactions is the way we choose to handle our emotions. No certain way of processing one’s own emotions is the correct manner, however one way could be more appropriate than another, for example I know a lot of people who tend to bottle up and mask their emotions, they are the angriest people I know, while they successfully hide their emotions from their loved ones, they fail to remain emotionally stable in everything else in their lives, however their reaction in certain situations may be more appropriate than those of Tiffany’s at the diner. On the other hand the way Tiffany handled her emotions at the diner, may have left her feeling relieved of releasing all that anger. Therefore, to conclude I believe that there is no perfect way to interact and that is the reason we all face difficulties with it, specially when we are just starting to get to know the other

person.