Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Short Big Punch-Up, 21 Aug 2003
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?
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best romantic movie of the last ten years, 10 Oct 2003
By A Customer
After the hugely successful Boogie Nights and the inspirational Magnolia, it seems P.T. Anderson has written and directed yet another astonishingly genius movie that goes way off the richter scale of the normal, and all the better for it.Punch-Drunk Love is the Adam Sandler/"romantic comedy" in essence, but hugley distorted and a lot more subtle in humour, making it a truly surreal experience.Adam Sandler stars as Barry Egan, the "Angry but innocent" archetype, but made a lot more realistic and human.So rather than just shouting and stomping like in so many other Sandler films, Barry is quiet,depressed,obsessed with repeating patterns and is prone to outbursts of violence because of a serious implosive rage issue.Barry is the boss of a small company that sells toiletries, is emotionally scarred by his nagging seven sisters, is used to being put down all the time and is very, very lonely. So lonely infact that he calls a phone sex line, just so he can talk to somebody. This leads to a sleazy extortion scam lead by the big talking Mattress Man(played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) and threats Barry's well being. Then enters the unusually beautiful Lena(Emily Watson) who strikes up an unassuming relationship with Barry, just because she saw him in a photograph one of his sisters took and decided to take a chance. Their love blossoms and sends Barry into a state of emotional complexity, fluctuating between lust, uncontrollable rage(at everyone else except Lena anyway) and self doubt,ultimately leading him to change his hellish life and confront the extortionists out to get him.
I, like everybody, was a bit sceptical of Adam Sandler being in P.T. Andersons movie, but after seeing the film I realise that he is one of the best actors of our time. He manages to be funny and very sympathetic as the emotional mess that is our hero, while Hoffman,Watson and Luis Guzman excell as the rest of the cast. What also is outstanding is the directing, beautifully shot images full of extreme colours.The use of sound is amazing too, as the tense drum music builds up when Barry is getting verbally abused,underpressure or growing more wildly angry, but when he is around Lena, its only triumphant violin music and a strange version of Shelly Duvall singing "He Needs Me"(as seen from the live version of Popeye).
Punch-Drunk Love won the best direcitng award at the Cannes and deserves to be a success.Definitely not a movie to miss if you want to see a unique, emotionally powerful love story with a twist.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dark, funny and romantic, 17 April 2006
The normally deeply annoying Adam Sandler gives a fascinating and intense performance in this unusual romantic comedy. Barry Egan (Sandler) is something of a misfit, and struggles with his emotions when a luminous but shy woman (played by Emily Watson) comes into his life. This film is dark, funny - and genuinely romantic.
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