Punch-Drunk Love
Directed by:
Paul Thomas AndersonScreenplay:
Paul Thomas AndersonCinematography:
Robert ElswitComposer:
Jon BrionCast:
Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzmán, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Robert Smigel, David Stevens, Jonathan Loughran, Don McManus (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) is a quiet, shy, socially awkward man with an office in an out-of-the-way warehouse. He is dedicated to his job as a wholesale toilet plunger salesman, he keeps a nice apartment, and he is obsessed with special offers on grocery store products. Barry's latest fixation is on frequent flier miles included with the purchase of Healthy Choice foods. Barry wears a bright blue suit, though he doesn't know why. With seven outspoken sisters, Barry is constantly being nagged, questioned, and berated. He is challenged to explain the reasons for his actions, and it eventually becomes clear that Barry cannot control his often-violent impulses, a trait which is increasingly problematic. When a beautiful woman, Lena Leonard (Emily Watson), walks into his life with an instinctive attraction to him, a nonjudgmental attitude, and unconditional love, Barry undergoes a powerful transformation. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (7)
Drunk with confusion. Between a peculiar comedy and a strange attempt at it, there lies sometimes a too thin line. Anderson followed it for so long, until he took a few steps towards the other possibility. I was looking for the promised life romance, believable performances, and the feeling of finding myself. Instead, I got lost.
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Paul Thomas Anderson in to film what like Picasso is to painting, disjointed, abstract, and hard to decipher. Most conventional viewers won't understand him, and a large number of seasoned viewers won't accept him for various reasons, because he is not classical enough and regrettably has the unfortunate quality that his films always seem to have something "more", but that's not always true, which is exactly the case here. Sandler is excellent.
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Magnolia tore me up emotionally and Boogie Nights entertained me fantastically. But Punch-Drunk Love – regardless of how innovatively and imaginatively it was directed – didn’t move me at all. It’s a spectacularly stylized void, both emotionally and intellectually.
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For P.T. Anderson an unusually short running time, but the enormous potential of this film has been exploited to the hilt. This is no longer "just" (it must be added that this "just" will forever remain a mystery to most filmmakers) a brilliant script supported by extremely imaginative direction, but one of the most impressive films I have ever seen, one with extraordinary charm and enormous heart. In the moments when Barry (Adam Sandler not only surprises but plays his role superbly) suppresses a huge amount of anger, helplessness, and revulsion, I felt a little (a lot) like that – it just blew me away because there is so much feeling and emotion in it I couldn't even manage to "live out" three times :))
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Paul Thomas Anderson and I will probably never be close friends. I don't really enjoy his films due to their pace and concept. Adam Sandler shows in this piece that he can act, and I'm glad for that, but despite his presence, I could not get into the movie. The long, boring shots just didn't captivate me, even though at times I thought that the story was developing quite unexpectedly.
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