Pat (Bradley Cooper) is just out of a psychiatric institution, after eight months of "treatment" for violent behaviour and assault on his ex-wife's lover. He lost his job and his home and he is forced to move in with his parents.

Tiffany (Lawrence) is a young widow, stricken by grief after her husband's death, who turned to compulsively sleeping around. The fact that Lawrence plays a part written for a woman over thirty undermines her credibility, but not her capability to deliver.

They meet not-so-cute at a dinner organised by Tiffany's sister and from then on the plot creeps along, following their tentative relationship. It does not help that Pat's father, played by De Niro, is a bookmaker obsessed with football.

Way too much screen time is dedicated to this sub-plot and if you do not care about football - like me - you might find the second part quite tedious, with all the betting and games. Maybe without that and with a tighter editing, it could have been a decent movie... still not Oscar-worthy, but Cooper and Lawrence have some chemistry and their characters are marginally endearing.

On a general note, even if Pat is generically described as "bipolar" and Tiffany as "borderline" they seemed just two people who found it difficult coping with traumatic events - which does not imply any serious mental illness. I found it weird that in our society, reacting in violent or unpredictable ways to the blows of life, is apparently considered as "mental illness"...