Does ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ sugarcoat bipolar disorder?

Warning: This post contains major spoilers about "Silver Linings Playbook."

Will audiences only watch movies about mental illness if they're funny?

"Silver Linings Playbook," director David O. Russell's latest film, is getting a tonne of Oscar buzz, thanks to standout performances from stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. Cooper plays Pat, a man who experiences a violent breakdown and is trying to get his life back on track after an extended stay in a psychiatric hospital. Aiding Pat in his effort to put things right is another troubled soul, Tiffany (Lawrence), who convinces the troubled former teacher to help her with a very unique problem -- a ballroom dancing competition -- and, with any luck, to help himself in the process.

"Silver Linings Playbook" is a very funny movie (not a surprise given Russell's previous work on brainy comedies like "Flirting with Disaster" and "I Heart Huckabees"), but it's also a very sad and emotionally affecting film. Pat suffers from bipolar disorder, a mental illness characterized by extreme mood swings. The character's sudden and frequently violent mood swings are hugely self-destructive, harming not only himself but those around him, including his elderly parents. It's a frank depiction of mental illness, one that will be familiar to many but also one that's rarely seen in mainstream Hollywood movies.

See also: Five film facts about 'Silver Linings Playbook'

Rarer still are genuinely other entertaining movies that seriously address something like bipolar disorder. Recent high-profile films that dealt with similar subject matter, like Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" and Jodie Foster's "The Beaver," were not exactly the feel-good movies of their respective years -- or, for that matter, films intended for the mainstream.

Russell's film, on the other hand, has been described by countless critics as a "crowd pleaser" and even won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Nobody goes to the movies to be depressed or to be reminded of their own problems; they go to the theatre to be entertained and to escape their own lives for a few hours. "Silver Linings Playbook" arguably might do both those things for audiences, at least for its first two acts.

The film's giddily fun final act is so tonally out of whack with the first two thirds that sometimes it feels as though the movie itself may be suffering from the same affliction as its main character; it's a total mood swing. By that point, "Silver Linings Playbook" might as well be called "Overcoming Bipolar Disorder Through Ballroom Dance." The overly positive ending might be suitable for the average romantic comedy, but in a film with such heavy beginning and middle, the happy ending just feels like it's doing the subject matter a serious disservice.

See also: Jennifer Lawrence debuts drastically different look at Toronto International Film Festival

After all, laughter is the best medicine. You don't need drugs and professional help when you've got the power of dance! (Insert sarcastic laugh here.) Throughout the film, Pat is seen taking medication for his condition (at the insistence of his parents) and talking to a psychiatrist (at the insistence of the court), and yet these things never really get credit for helping the character. Pat's life changing moment -- his catharsis, his cure -- is attributed to doing well (or at least well enough) in the dance contest. The end of the film depicts a comparatively happy and normal Pat, ready to move forward with his life.

Did Russell or some studio executive decide that audiences would only be able to stomach Pat's story of mental illness if it included a heartwarming underdog story about amateur ballroom dancing? "Silver Linings Playbook" starts out as a tragi-comic drama and ends up in generic rom-com territory, thanks to a plot device that glosses over the seriousness of Pat's condition.