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Silver Linings Playbook

David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook" is a surprisingly mainstream romantic comedy, albeit with a compelling kinetic energy coursing through the entire picture owing to the strong direction and some impressive work by the cinematography and editing teams.

Bradley Cooper is winsome and involving as the neurotic hero Pat while Jennifer Lawrence, who created a hurt and calloused shell for the young, damaged Tiffany with a sense of craving, fragility and fury burning right beneath the surface, is just all kinds of wonderful.

Dans la maison (In the House)

François Ozon's "Dans la maison (In the House)" has a beautifully layered and devilishly clever script that, some occasional over-the-top missteps and a rather faint ending aside, deftly plays with the line between fiction/reality and explores the seductive power of manipulation.

The French auteur's direction further toys with audience perception by injecting unexpected shots of theatricality into the picture and blends the absurd with the truly hair-raising to good effect. Young star Ernst Umhauer delivers a charismatic turn as the cunning pupil with a voyeuristic urge bordering on destructive obsession.