Punch-Drunk Love [DVD] [2010]

After making his 180 minute epic Magnolia, director PT Anderson was asked by the press what his next project would be. He announced he was making a 90 minute comedy starring Adam Sandler, to hearty laughter from the assembled hacks.

And then he made Punch-Drunk Love, a 90 minute comedy, starring Adam Sandler. Well, sort of...

Sandler plays Barry Egan, a man who is seemingly terrified by the world and also suffering from some kind of obsessive compulsive disorder. The film tracks his persecution at the hands of a chatline operator and his 'chance' meeting with a girl which leads to the Love of the title. But why Punch-Drunk too? Possibly because in the first half of the film Barry is subjected to glaring lights, clanging noises, the hen-pecking of his seven sisters and a physical beating...and then he follows Emily Watson's Lena on a business trip and his whole life changes.

Punch-Drunk Love veers between hectic, intense scenes to blissful dreaminess. The cinematography is superb, but likewise swings from steadicam loveliness to handheld paranoia. All the while, the soundtrack reflects this too with jittering, jerky themes melting into sweet hawaiian folk songs.

I loved this film at the cinema and repeat viewings on dvd have backed this up; its mixture of comedy and pathos, romance, phonesex and smashed up patio doors is genuinely appealing. The cast are perfect, and Sandler is a revelation playing something approaching his typical 'manchild', but cast adrift in a world that frustrates and frightens him. Emily Watson brings a tender soulfulness to the character of Lena, and Philip Seymour-Hoffman is as great as ever playing Barry's nemesis the Mattress Man.

Punch-Drunk Love split the critics when released and falls into the 'love it or hate it' category pretty squarely. But if you can accept the uneven tone and want something wholly different from the usual pap that Hollywood serves up in the romantic comedy genre you may well be surprised and delighted. And watch out for the way Barry's ties change colour as the film progresses to match the colour of Lena's dress last time he saw her. Aint that sweet?

It's taken me a really long time (and multiple viewings) to realise that I really like this film a lot. Adam Sandler brings a lot to this role (and is perfect for it) but he also brings a lot of unwanted stuff regarding the expectations you might have going into an Adam Sandler film. The first time I saw this I had some very different expectations to what I ended up seeing here. I'll be honest I was slightly dissapointed.

I watched it again after seeing P. T. Anderson's next film `There Will Be Blood' (which has been my favorite film since I saw it in the cinema) and I realized how much I love the it. It's taken me a while to get there but now I'm totally there. And compared to TWBB it really is a really P. T. Anderson film. The protagonist is a flawed but likeable character. How you feel about him changes throughout the film. I like my protagonists flawed I've realized. And I don't like them to come through a whole heap of trouble and emerge a normal person at the other end.

I'd say the biggest similarity between the two films has to do with the concept of love and companionship. This is the central theme underlying both of these films. There is a line in PDL; "I have a love in my life and that makes me stronger than you can possibly imagine". Barry's life is made worth living by having someone to love and share himself with. It's only when he begins a relationship that he starts to take care of himself physically, by standing up to the people who would harm his new love, or his ability to be with her. This is a newly found central relationship in his life, which carries incredible significance for him. Similarly Daniel Plainview in TWBB has a central relationship upon which he builds his entire life around. It's only when his Brother comes to stay does can he get rid of his problematic son. And it's only when his brother betrays him (I don't want to spoil it) does he need to get his son back to him. He needs a family member to depend on, run his business and share his life with. This is why Plainview is so twisted at the end of the film when his son, In his eyes, betrays him. Both characters have a deep need for companionship. In my eyes this is obviously a theme, unconscious or not, from P. T. Anderson.

Clearly not everyone agrees that this is a masterpiece, but I think you have to take it for what is actually shown to you on the screen and judge that. Don't try to worry too much about what is not shown.

Everyone agrees that Adam Sandler gives a magnificent performance, but I was so blown away by it that I think it is worth mentioning again. Sandler plays a loserish small time business man with a suppressed violent streak who gets seduced by Emily Watson (and falls in love with her) while (i) being hounded by seven over-bearing sisters (ii) extorted by Philip Seymour Hoffman's phone sex line operation (iii) trying to collect a million air miles from chocolate pudding and (iv) learning to play a harmonium that someone randomly left on the sidewalk (pavement)

And everyone agrees that the direction, soundtrack and script by Paul Thomas Anderson is quirky. So its a quirky film, and you have to watch it with your quirky pants on, otherwise you'll get an uncomfortable sensation in your nethers. Look again at the points I listed in the last paragraph... Emily Watson does not seduce small time losers - its about as likely as a prince falling in love with a poor girl who's usually covered in cinders (i) no one has seven equally over-bearing sisters - its about as likely as finding seven dwarfs living together in a cottage in the woods (ii) okay, phone sex line operators might extort people, but how this plot line ends is predictably quirky and surreal (iii) chocolate pudding air-miles promotions - need I spell it out? and (iv) no one randomly drops a harmonium on the pavement and drives away - its about as likely as finding gold at the top of a giant beanstalk.

If, for example you start asking yourself the obvious question of why beautiful Emily Watson wants to seduce Adam Sandler then you might as well ask how the wolf managed to dress up in Little Red Riding Hood's grandma's clothes if he didn't have opposable thumbs. There is lots of unexplained background. That is not a flaw in the structure of the film. The unexplained background IS the structure of the film, because although the film has a feeling of realism about it (as opposed to comedy or fantasy genre), nothing in it is supposed to be realistic. It's a quirky far-fetched fairy tale, with a quirky fairy tale happy ending for the modern age - where the lonely 30-something guy gets the girl. That is definitely a fairy tale that I want someone to read to me at night!

If you approach it with this attitude, then you'll probably see it as a masterpiece. If you look for any realism or credibility in it then you're wasting your time.