Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002): USA

Reviewed by Byron Potau.  Viewed on DVD.

While maybe not the typical love story you’re used to, Paul Thomas Anderson’s offbeat Punch Drunk Love is a wonderfully unique and beautifully strange film that cannot help but charm you to pieces.  With Valentine’s Day coming up, this is a great film for those who are a little left of center and can stand a fresh and funny look at love.

Sandler plays Barry Egan, a self-employed small business owner whose seven nagging sisters have left him shy, awkward, alone, and with a tremendous amount of pent up anger which comes out spontaneously and often hilariously.  Barry’s loneliness leads him to call a phone sex line one night.  The next day, one of Barry’s sisters introduces him to her coworker who fancies him and asks him out.  Despite some hitches, they like each other, but the phone sex call comes back to haunt him in a terrifying and unpredictable way.

Despite this unnerving plot twist, the film is painfully endearing and hilarious, and a perfect fit on Valentine’s Day when it is so important to find a fresh twist on love.   Filled with fantastic symbolism, out of tune harmonium, and motifs, and wonderfully vibrant colored montage interludes using the artwork of Jeremy Blake, this film is an incredibly underrated masterpiece.  From Robert Elswit’s cinematography with its strange and intrusive colors, to the incredibly creative sound and sound editing, to the wonderful music score by Jon Brion, to an inspired use of Shelly Duvall’s rendition of “He Needs Me” from Robert Altman’s Popeye, simply every aspect of this film is absolutely brilliant and serves to make this, arguably, Paul Thomas Anderson’s best film.  The acting is great with a splendidly dead pan Luis Guzman as Lance, one of Barry’s employees; an over the top Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the Mattress Man and head of the phone sex line; and Emily Watson as Barry’s love interest, the sweet and lovely Lina.  Yet it is Sandler who really impresses by finding the comedy from within the character rather than his typical overacting.  Lastly, it is Paul Thomas Anderson’s brilliantly hysterical and quirky script and exceptionally inventive direction that makes it all come together.  This is an incredible cinematic treat.