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Movies / On DVD / Punch-Drunk Love
Punch-Drunk Love

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Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

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Reviews Counted:180

Fresh:142

Rotten:38

Average Rating:7.4/10

Consensus: Punch-Drunk Love is weird and delightfully funny, even though Sandler essentially plays the same character he has always played in all his movies.

Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Paul Thomas Anderson follows 1999's MAGNOLIA with the intensely compelling character study PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) is a quiet, shy, socially awkward man with an office in an... Paul Thomas Anderson follows 1999's MAGNOLIA with the intensely compelling character study PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) is a quiet, shy, socially awkward man with an office in an out-of-the-way warehouse. He is dedicated to his job as a wholesale toilet plunger salesman, he keeps a nice apartment, and he is obsessed with special offers on grocery store products. Barry's latest fixation is on frequent flier miles included with the purchase of Healthy Choice foods. Barry wears a bright blue suit, though he doesn't know why. With seven outspoken sisters, Barry is constantly being nagged, questioned, and berated. He is challenged to explain the reasons for his actions, and it eventually becomes clear that Barry cannot control his often-violent impulses, a trait which is increasingly problematic. When a beautiful woman, Lena Leonard (Emily Watson), walks into his life with an instinctive attraction to him, a nonjudgmental attitude, and unconditional love, Barry undergoes a powerful transformation. Anderson's film is a tour-de-force for which he garnered the Best Director award at Cannes 2002. Set primarily in Los Angeles and Utah, he shoots either bleak deserted spaces (apartment building hallways) or lush, exotic paradises (Hawaii). Aiming for a Technicolor look, the blue of Barry's suit in contrast with Lena's solid pinks, reds, and whites, pops off of the screen. Colorful interludes designed by visual artist Jeremy Blake offer hallucinogenic lapses from the action of the film, while the rapid percussive score by Jon Brion keeps the suspense and the emotional exasperation of the film on a constantly high level. [More]

Starring: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzman

Starring: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzman, Mary Lynn Rajskub

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Screenwriter: Paul Thomas Anderson
Producer: Joanne Sellar, Daniel Lupi
Composer: Jon Brion
Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment

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Reviews for Punch-Drunk Love

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1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >> >|
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Anderson has a firm grip on Sandler's dangerous essence and draws it out in an astonishing performance.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
02/02/03
Angie Errigo
Angie Errigo
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The film is unpredictable in its humour, drama and poignancy, and ends up fascinating.

Full Review Source: UK Critic | comment Comment
02/16/03
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
UK Critic

An oddly moving, surprisingly charming film that you'll find yourself thinking about months after you see it.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
02/08/03
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

Both funny and moving -- profoundly odd, but also oddly profound.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
01/07/03
Nev Pierce
Nev Pierce
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Subtle and more than a little offbeat, this is the kind of movie the Farrellys might make if they (a) made intelligent films and (b) weren't obsessed with gross-out humor.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
11/14/02
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

Shots, such as when Sandler and Watson kiss in silhouette, are truly memorable -- but Punch-Drunk Love is never more than this: a series of chocolate-box moments, PT-style.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
05/28/08
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The film looks good and has its funny moments, but too often one senses Anderson straining to impress...

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Derek Adams
Derek Adams
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

'Punch-Drunk Love is so convinced of its own brilliance that, if it were a person, you'd want to smash its face in.'

Full Review Source: Teletext | comment Comment
02/27/03
Paul Arendt
Paul Arendt
Teletext

Nothing makes much sense, and the Watson character would have run a mile from Sandler, who performs like Jerry Lewis at his least endearing.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
03/25/03
Philip French
Philip French
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

In the end, Punch-Drunk Love leaves us dangling a little too much to be considered a total knockout.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
10/11/02
E! Online
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Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | comment Comment
10/11/02
Hollywood.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

What Mr. Anderson wants to do is recapture, without nostalgia, the giddiness and sweep of old movies, and his mastery of the emotional machinery of the medium is breathtaking.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
10/05/02
A.O. Scott
A.O. Scott
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

...una de las más hermosas historias de amor jamás filmadas...

Full Review Source: Cinenganos | comment Comment
03/12/03
Alex Ramirez
Alex Ramirez
Cinenganos

It is already apparent that Punch-Drunk Love will not be everyone's cup of tea, but nonetheless Mr. Anderson has found a way to fashion a passionate romance out of the materials of postmodern chaos.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
10/23/02
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer

...a visual song of vulnerability, with a rhythm vaulting from discord to harmony and back again in vibrating organic-colored tones, as if the whole film were breathing on its own.

Full Review Source: Metro Times (Detroit, MI) | comment Comment
10/30/02
Anita Schmaltz
Anita Schmaltz
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)

A weird, arresting little ride.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
10/18/02
Ann Hornaday
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post

On a literal level, it only amounts to a shaggy dog story, but anyone who quibbles with the plot is missing the point. Anderson’s filmmaking is so spellbinding that the disparate elements seem to fit.

Full Review Source: East Hampton Independent | comment Comment
10/10/02
Ben Kenigsberg
Ben Kenigsberg
East Hampton Independent

Un Redemption de Adam Sandler.

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
09/12/02
Bill Chambers
Bill Chambers
Film Freak Central

In Punch-Drunk Love, Adam Sandler doesn't so much discard his old persona as illuminate it, breathing life into the cardboard characters that populated his earlier films.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
10/25/02
Bill Muller
Bill Muller
Arizona Republic

We're going to go out on a limb and say that Punch-Drunk Love will probably be the best movie ever to star Adam Sandler.

Full Review Source: Citysearch | comment Comment
10/10/02
Bill Pearis
Bill Pearis
Citysearch
 
 
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