Punch-Drunk Love

Even the most pathetic person in the world can find love, as long as he is a character in a gentle romantic comedy with a decidedly art-house bent and a very creative director.

Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) is a socially awkward, lonely man who runs a company selling novelty plungers (he calls them "fungers") and whose seven sisters hassle him quite cruelly for easy laughs. So when one of them, Elizabeth (Mary Lynn Rajskub) tries to introduce Barry to her friend, Lena (Emily Watson), he's understandably wary.

"I don't do stuff like that," he tells Elizabeth.

"You don't really do anything," she replies.

Lena proves to be more than he expected, and the experience of being with her challenges him to take on the world in a more focused way than he is used to.

When I finished watching this the first time, I wondered who Paul Thomas Anderson thought he was kidding with this oddball flick. If he wanted to make a comedy, where were the laughs? If he wanted to make a serious rumination about love and life, why cast Adam Sandler and ask him to play Dustin Hoffman in "Rainman?" We get right away Barry's attraction to Lena, but what's in it for her? And why is the major crisis of the movie, Barry being extorted by a phone-sex line, so easily resolved?

After a couple more viewings, I decided that it was less an attempt at presenting a serious romantic situation and more a rumination on how art and life intersect, or to be more exact, do not intersect. It's clear the more times you view "Punch-Drunk Love" the more you are to view it not as real but an over-the-top rom-com farce, with excessive movie-ish effects. There are more flares in this film than a J. J. Abrams space adventure. When Barry gets on a plane he is shot as if one of the astronauts in "The Right Stuff."

As an examination of how movies work better than life, "Punch-Drunk Love" is fascinating, if a bit hollow. I enjoyed very much Sandler's central performance, which works much better than I would have expected given I'm not a fan of him in more familiar comedy roles. He does a great job pulling us into Barry's troubled world and making us really like the guy.

"You sound very nice and very personable," he tells a phone-sex operator at the outset of their call.

Anderson's symbolism is bracingly overt here, perhaps part of the metacomedy he is working toward. In the beginning we watch a harmonium being dropped off mysteriously at Barry's place of work, as if to tell us our protagonist has a song to sing. When Barry and Lena leave a restaurant, we watch a moving van follow them from behind, telling us a big move is afoot.

Anderson has become a major director since "Punch-Drunk Love" in a way he wasn't at the time; his films are bigger hits now, and more widely championed. I find "Punch-Drunk Love" to be his coming to terms with his burgeoning abilities, to play God and mock the ways certain types of films conspire to give audiences a happy ending. For all that seeming manipulation, "Punch-Drunk Love" has Anderson's charm, and sense of grace, as well as a brilliant in-the-moment performance by Sandler.

I wish it was funnier, and made more sense, but I can't say I didn't enjoy the ride.

I saw Punch Drunk Love at the Gothenburg film festival today and I was totally overwhelmed by it. I had really looked forward to it since I love Paul Thomas Anderson's earlier films. Magnolia is still among my top five favourite movies ever and my expectations were therefore almost too high. I must admit I was sceptical of Adam Sandler playing a serious part. But he makes fantastic interpretation of his character Barry Egan, a small business owner pushed around by his seven (!) sisters who's miserable life takes a turn when he meets love in Emily Watson's character. Watson makes a beautiful portrait of the mysterious and lonely Lena who falls in love with Barry.

The movie isn't just well acted, it's also magnificent to watch. The camerawork is exquisite and Anderson really shows of his visual talent. Every frame in the one and a half hour film could be frozen and displayed as a piece of art. But the most impressive thing in the film is still Adam Sandler. Every word, expression and nuance is perfect and genuine. If this doesn't deserve an Oscar nomination I don't now what will. His performance is superior to the last five winners.

Punch Drunk Love is the way a movie should be. It's the way you wish all movies were like and I wish I could hang it on my wall. The poster will have to do.

One of the reasons I would recommend 'Punch-Drunk Love' is Adam Sandler. For the first time he is the best thing in a movie and I must admit he does a tremendous job with his character, named Barry Egan. He has the same aggressive outbursts he has in his comedies but here they fit his character and the story. He seems like a pretty normal guy although you see something in his face, something ready to come out, and when it comes you can almost understand it.

The story is a love story, in a way. The love interest is Lena (Emily Watson). They are both different and therefore there is a chance it could work. Another part of the story involves a sex line that Barry called. They have his credit card number and everything and force him from time to time to donate money. How this story goes from there is not for me to reveal but it gives us some very unexpected moments.

That is one of the other good things in this movie. Most of the time you don't know and can't even guess what will happen next. It is another reason to see this movie, although I do think it has some boring moments as well. The story develops slow and that makes it a movie not all people will like. If you like Adam Sandler-movies like 'Mr. Deeds' or 'Big Daddy' I think you should skip 'Punch-Drunk Love'. If you like other movies from director Paul Thomas Anderson I am not sure. I liked 'Boogie Nights' and 'Magnolia' a lot better, but you might want to give it a chance.

While reading some of the other comments for this film I was initially baffled. I could not understand how anyone in their right mind would dislike, much less hate a movie as simple and beautiful as this.

Then it dawned on me.

Most people don't have the equipment to emphathize with real alienation. They're too happy, they're too normal, their lives and their relationships all worked out a little too easily.

Life for Barry hasn't been like that way at all. In fact he has as much trouble comprehending how normal life works as those with normal lives comprehend how easily it is for someone else's life to suck so bad.

Barry knows he's not doing things "right". But everytime he's reached out he's been rebuked harshly. He doesn't want to leave his apartment or his place of work. He hates visiting his sisters, going "out" to eat, or meeting new people. He's collecting up millions of frequent flyer miles because it's a good deal, but doesn't really see himself ever using them. Everytime he steps a millimeter out of his usual, safe routine it ends up horribly.

But Barry's hell doesn't end there. In addition to all this, no one will ever let him FORGET about any of it. He is continually reminded of everything by his family and all his actions are continually questioned and examined by outsiders so that, in his mind and in his experience, it will add to yet another story on the heap that he will never be allowed to forget. Whenever anyone asks him a personal question, or a question about his actions, he usually responds with the safe and evasive, "I don't know." Any other answer leaves him open to likely ridicule for the rest of his life.

Barry spends most of the movie, quite understandably, in a continual state of social paralysis, suffocating to death before our eyes.

And then eventually, a break comes. Naturally he's defensive, naturally he expects things to go horribly wrong, and that he'd never be able to live it down and be forced to remember every excruciating detail on through eternity. But it doesn't ... and eventually he let's himself go. He tells the truth. He opens up. He tells about the pudding, he admits to the phone-sex line. He becomes a bit less paralyzed.

Many people complain that the movie isn't believable because no woman would ever go out with this type of guy.

Well DUH. Of course not.

But the movie isn't about painting a realistic relationship. It isn't about whether a woman would actually go for a guy like him. Her background and her motivations are irrelevent. Accurately painting a fully-fleshed out love interest would be self-defeating. The more accurately painted she was, the less likely we'd EVER believe someone could fall in love with Barry.

The girl he meets is his dream-girl. She represents the idea that even the nuttiest, most repressed, most socially inept individuals deserve a chance at happiness. OF COURSE there'd really never be a person there for Barry, but far more important is the idea that she COULD exist. That somewhere she should exist.

The movie isn't about her, it's about Barry.

Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love is a fascinating film. Perhaps 2002's best movie - and one of the best drama/romantic-comedies to ever hit the silver screen.

PT Anderson is an absolute genius. A talented and master film-maker. Boogie Nights and Magnolia, two of Anderson's previous films, were absolutely stunning. Boogie Nights, in particular, was a complete masterpiece. And Punch-Drunk Love is no exception, another great piece of film-making by what is quickly becoming one of the world's top Directors. I can't wait for whatever he does next.

Also, it's difficult to overstate the performance of Adam Sandler. I'm confident this will go down in history as his best work. Ironically, I thought I'd never see this movie because of Sandler starring in it. (I ONLY watched it because of my respect for PT Anderson - and I still waited 3 years to see it!). I enjoy most of Sandler's non-romantic comedies, but I couldn't even imagine him in a romantic movie, I thought he would be horrible. I couldn't have been more wrong. I wasn't prepared for such a great performance, as he stole the show from the opening scene. I can't remember ever being more surprised with the lead actor in a movie. He was simply great, a truly terrific performance.

On the flip side, Emily Watson, as the caring Lena, was wonderful as well. I've got the feeling we will be seeing much more of her, as she had a breakout performance here in PDL. I thought at first that she almost looked too beautiful to put up with the antics of someone like Sandler's character (as she would be in high demand with the males), but then we see the quirky side of her as well, and it all comes together. Great touch.

I recommend this movie to anyone over the age of 25. If you're a teenager who's hoping for a few laughs from Sandler, you're going to be gravely disappointed. Buy the movie, store it in your closet, and pull it out when you reach 30 - and you'll love it! And please, don't let "romantic comedy" scare you (as it does me). I almost REFUSE to watch romantic comedies, but this one is much different. Romance and comedy surely aren't the first things that come to mind when I think of this film. It's a drama full of tension and embarrassment. It's an uplifting, yet shocking movie. To the intellectual mind, I can't recommend it enough.

Thank you for reading!...

JD