2003-01-12

Even though I�d watched a couple of trailers for this movie and read a couple of reviews, I was still totally unprepared for what would unfold in Punch-Drunk Love. It was not at all what I had expected. Without giving too much away, I can tell you that Adam Sandler plays Barry Egan, a put-upon younger brother to seven sisters (!) who harass him even while he�s at work as owner and manager of a novelty bathroom-accessories wholesale business. Yes, it�s as weird as it sounds. Barry seems to have some sort of psychological difficulty which causes him to repress his feelings of anxiety and anger until he explodes in a violent rage, usually on inanimate objects rather than people. Alternately, he breaks down in floods of tears. Either way, it doesn�t look like it�s much fun being Barry.

Eventually, Barry meets a nice woman named Lena Leonard (Emily Watson) who seems to be one of the only people who can actually accept him for who he is and does not harass him, at work or anywhere else. Part of the reason they seem to get along so well probably has to do with the fact that she seems to be a little strange herself. In addition to the lovely relationship which blooms between these two sad and lonely people, there are two seemingly extraneous storylines involving the redemption of pudding bar codes for airline miles and a phone-sex operator who uses Barry�s personal information to harass him and extort money from him.

At first glance, Punch-Drunk Love seems to be quite different from director P. T. Anderson�s previous films such as Boogie Nights and Magnolia, both of which were grand in scope and epic in length. True, Punch-Drunk Love is a shorter movie, but there is just as much going on and just as many bizarre and seemingly unrelated storylines competing for attention. However, to give him credit, all of the storylines, including the one about the phone-sex extortion, do serve to tie up different themes in the movie. I applaud Anderson in this film, because he seems to have overcome the one thing I found annoying in his previous outings: the inability to cut anything out, even if it didn�t really add to the story. Here, he has produced a tightly-edited, sharply focused movie that does not feel a minute too long.

The actors are all very good, especially Adam Sandler and Emily Watson. Mary-Ellen Raskjub, who plays Barry's well-meaning but meddling sister Elizabeth, is good as well. Philip Seymour Hoffmann, an Anderson regular, is excellent as well in his tiny but very effective role. Luis Guzman is also very good as Barry�s good-natured, supportive, but long-suffering employee Lance. I read another review of Punch-Drunk Love which criticized it for not developing any of the characters enough, but I disagree. I do think that the most time is spent showing us Barry�s character, but he is the protagonist, after all. The movie is about Barry�s development from someone who can�t stand up for himself and is overwhelmed and frustrated by the confusing and seemingly random occurrences in his life to someone who discovers that he is quite capable of acting in self-defense and the protection of his loved one.

One of the movie�s strongest points was the way that it used sounds and images to put the audience in Barry�s place and help us understand what it must be like to be him, a little off-kilter and very sensitive to outside stimuli. At some points, the sound in the movie is amplified suddenly, to great effect, especially in the opening scenes. At other times, we are treated to a cacophony of unrelated but highly irritating noises. I noticed that during one scene where Barry and Lena are on a date in a restaurant, it is very difficult to hear the actors� dialogue. I am convinced that this is deliberate, and it serves to keep the audience on edge, the way that Barry must feel on edge most of the time. The director�s use of colour is also very interesting�during certain scene transitions, a kaleidoscopic array of colours washes gently across the screen, and swirls of pastel shades move in time to the musical score. I�m not entirely sure what this was supposed to represent, but it was an interesting effect.

Overall, I found Punch-Drunk Love to be well worth watching. It�s one of the few movies I�ve seen recently where I had no idea what was going to happen next. Barry is such a volatile, unpredictable character that the audience is literally on the edge of their seats waiting for his next outburst, either of violence or lovestruck passion. It was gratifying to watch Sandler in a movie that allowed him to demonstrate his talents as an actor.

Posted by polarcanuck at 1:53 p.m.

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