The film opens with Pat Solatano Jr. (Bradley Cooper) being released from a Baltimore psychiatric facility. He has spent eight months inside after pleading guilty to assaulting the lover of his wife, Nikki (Brea Bee). The crime? Pat came home early from work to find Nikki in the shower with a history teacher. Pat then beat the man nearly to death.
Pat’s singular, delusional goal is to win back his estranged wife, Nikki. He refuses to take his medication, believing that his "silver linings" philosophy—finding the positive in every negative event—is enough to cure him. He spends his days lifting weights in the basement, reading the novels on Nikki’s high school syllabus (Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms becomes a recurring point of rage), and jogging in a trash bag to sweat out his negativity. silver linings playbook -2013-