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Movie Review: Punch-Drunk Love

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

Directed and Written by Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson

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Punch-Drunk Love is a surrealist rom-com. Then again, it's an underdog story. Then again, it's a bit of a drama/thriller...let's cut to the synopsis, shall we...?

Adam Sandler stars as Barry Egan, a novelty-business owner with deep social issues, part of which stem from dealing with seven overbearing sisters who run his life an berate him constantly. He meets the lovely Lena (Watson), and appears to have the perfect scam going with Healthy Choice pudding, but runs afoul of a phone-sex extortion ring. Barry's hard road to love is fraught with exasperating humans and frightening circumstances, and he must find the courage to finally be himself and flail through the obstacles in his path in order to win Lena's heart.

Paul Thomas Anderson takes all the elements of a fairly standard boy-meets-girl story and plays 52-card pickup with them. From the get-go, we're treated to masterful medium- to long-shots, distancing us from Barry, unable to get inside his head; all we know is that the world is a desolate, frightening place that can erupt at any time. Why should a car flip unexpectedly on a near-empty street? Why would a van drop off a harmonium in the driveway? We're as lost as Barry, often stuck behind him as he tries to shuffle, unnoticed, out of his office to avoid being trapped with another human in a closed space. His sister's house - full of sisters - is our own firing squad as Barry's siblings pummel him with demands, questions, and half-remembered stories. Barry is somehow both the center of attention and invisible at the same time; his violent temper is merely another cause for comment and derision, his cries for help unheard amid the caws of his relatives. The cinematography masterfully captures an objective portrait of the man, while forcing the viewer to feel exactly what he feels.

Sandler, for his part, is a controlled explosion. He spends the first half of the film moving jerkily, like a puppet, lying unconvincingly and talking in a quietly deranged patter that resembles a guilty toddler. The elements are classic Sandler, taken down several notches; it's the way his performance is couched in the cinematography that make us look at him anew. Emily Watson is a treasure, playing light and sweet, with a quiet wisdom in her glance and vulnerability in the dip of her head or the movement of a hand. This could easily have been The Barry Egan Story with Lena merely along for the ride, but Anderson reigns in Sanders and allows Watson's quiet performance to blossom. Their chemistry is strange but good, sharing a childlike need for one another that overcomes their obvious differences. It's one of the few onscreen attractions I actually find convincing.

The score was also a character in this movie. I was immediately reminded of Blowout in the way the sound design complements the cinematography, weaving powerful images into quiet moments, and long, nearly static scenes layered over with tapestries of sound. It's used to greatest effect when accentuating Barry's discomfiture, jangling the viewer's nerves with overlays of different, equally demanding soundstreams, like several radios playing at the same time. The scenes in Barry's sister's house sets your teeth on edge: the subtly disrupted symmetry of the shots rattling with the sisters' voices all talking at once.

Punch-Drunk Love does suffer the curse of the Virtuoso Scorer at times; there were moments when not so many different sounds could have been used, or so many clanks, tocks, and tinkles made their way into the music...I argue for musical elegance when possible, since a superrich set of sounds reach their saturation point very quickly. The soundtrack mellows out nicely as the movie hits its groove, but the first quarter is a veritable sonic gridlock as each new song tries to muscle its way into the lane.

All in all, I enjoyed Punch-Drunk Love; its simplicity and honest sweetness pulled my heartstrings, even as my eyes and ears and mind feasted on the banquet of cinematographic and sonic delights. It's one of those little gems you discover when you raid the bargain bin, cast off by the less discerning in favor of a more "gettable" - and therefore forgettable - romantic comedy. Drama/thriller. Thing.

Final Verdict: Four out of Five.
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