Contrary to what we might think, Robert Deniro still has great performances left in him. If you want further proof of this statement watch him in "Silver Linings Playbook". The movie might not have met the expectations we had going for it after its Audience Award at TIFF but there are good things to be said about the film's performances. We all know about Jeniffer Lawrence's great performance but the one that really got to me was Deniro as Pat Solitano Sr. - an Eagles/football obsessed father that has never been diagnosed for what clearly is a major case of OCD. Pat Sr. is a man that has issues yet you root for him and Deniro is nothing but brilliant in the role. THIS is the Deniro we knew, an actor that can give out a million emotions with just one simple gesture of the face. It's the kind of playful, artistic performance that the actor was known to give in almost every movie he made in the 80's. Of course we can't forget all the terrible bombs he's given us the past 15 years, movies I'd rather not mention at this very moment, but Deniro still has the fire in him to make us feel alive at the movies again. This "Silver Linings Playbook" performance is of course not the at the level of intensity that he had in films such as Raging Bull, Taxi Driver or The Godfather but instead resembles more the dark playfulness that he showed in The King Of Comedy, Brazil, Wag The Dog and -even- Analyze This. If you want a darker, more intense Deniro you might be pleased to know that he confirmed last week a new collaboration with Martin Scorsese in a gangster film based on the book I Hear You Paint Houses. Al Pacino and Joe Pesci will co-star with him, now that's the stuff that dreams are made of. For the time being we have him doing his best work in years with "Silver Linings Playbook", a film that might just get him his 7th Oscar Nomination.