David O. Russell directs Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert DeNiro in this romantic comedy about two broken individuals with mental health issues coming together to win a dance competition. 

This really works, proving to be sweetly unguarded in its characters’ mania and completely feelgood in its “this going to be utter car crash” big dance comp finale. Jennifer Lawrence and Jacki Weaver are excellent as always but Russell impressively manages to wring out likeable and detailed performances from Cooper, post-1996 DeNiro and even Chris Tucker. Who else can say that? It is just winning to see a director aiming for the acerbic bleakness and witty sparkle of Billy Wilder’s heyday rather than dipping toward the vapid sheen of a Kate Hudson / Katherine Heigl vehicle when making a romcom.

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