Questions for discussion What is your immediate response to the film? What did you enjoy about it, and did you have any reservations? How effective are Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence’s central performances? How do they each convey their character’s particular quirks and struggles? How sympathetic did you find Pat and Tiffany as protagonists? Mental illness is a difficult theme for a film to handle, especially a comedy. How effectively does the film balance humour with its more serious elements? If you or somebody you know has experienced mental illness personally, how accurate and helpful did you feel the film’s perspective was? ‘We so often get caught in this state of negativity, and it’s a poison.’ – Pat Pat emerges from the psychiatric hospital determined to make a new start. What did you make of his ‘excelsior’ strategy, and determination to find ‘silver linings’? How far can positive thinking get us in life? ‘I’m not OK. Don’t tell anybody.’ – Ronnie (John Ortiz) Pat and Tiffany are not the only characters who appear to have mental health problems, or some kind of internal turmoil impacting their lives. Which other characters seem to have undiagnosed issues? What point might the director be making through this?

Questions for discussion What draws Tiffany to Pat, and vice versa? What role do honesty and vulnerability play in their relationship? To what extent – and in which contexts – is it helpful to be open about mental health issues, or other struggles which we face? Tiffany claims that her sister Veronica loves it when she has problems. In what ways can we be tempted to use other people’s problems to make ourselves feel better? Why is the human urge to be ‘normal’ so strong? ‘You can’t be happy all the time.’ – Ronnie In what ways might we be under cultural pressure to be happy – or at least to appear happy? How could such pressure be damaging, and how can we alleviate it? ‘Humanity’s just nasty, and there’s no silver lining.’ – Tiffany What view of human nature, and of the world, do we take away from the film? How might mental illness complicate our ideas about morality, especially moral responsibility? Is it possible to be both a realist and an optimist when it comes to human nature, and to the bigger human story? ‘We’re not liars like they are.’ – Tiffany What truths might Tiffany and Pat have access to which their ostensibly more ‘normal’ friends are missing out on? How truthful is the film about life’s difficulties, and the solutions we should look for?