I had to watch this film twice in a row to try and understand (and I'm still lost) as to where the hype, and the endless award nominations came from. Maybe without all the hype I would have been less disappointed, but it's still, to me, a film not worth watching. I was expecting it to be different from other typical American rom coms, but I was wrong. I haven't got anything against American rom coms, I just never really rate them highly. What made silver linings especially disappointing for me is that the portrayal of mental illness (which was the part of the story that made me want to see it) was awful. Whether it be bad acting or a poor narrative, but without the talk of mental illness, I wouldn't have even been aware that mental illness existed in the movie. You'd honestly just think the characters had poor social skills or maybe some milder form of a learning disability, such as asbergers, but certainly not bi-polar or any other serious mental health conditions. And this makes me really wonder where the Oscar nominations came from? I've never been more puzzled? Don't get lost in the hype, the film was extremely average, along with the acting.