The film looks good and has its funny moments, but too often one senses Anderson straining to impress...
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
Reviews for Punch-Drunk Love
'Punch-Drunk Love is so convinced of its own brilliance that, if it were a person, you'd want to smash its face in.'
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.
Anderson has a firm grip on Sandler's dangerous essence and draws it out in an astonishing performance.
Nothing makes much sense, and the Watson character would have run a mile from Sandler, who performs like Jerry Lewis at his least endearing.
An oddly moving, surprisingly charming film that you'll find yourself thinking about months after you see it.
The film is unpredictable in its humour, drama and poignancy, and ends up fascinating.
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.
A sustained fest of self-congratulation between actor and director that leaves scant place for the viewer.
Sandler, in trusting his director, gives a performance that declares the star a genuinely fine actor.
Anderson presents some of the sweetest, and most heartbreaking, moments in any movie this year.
Punch-Drunk Love mostly feints and jabs; by Anderson's standards it's strictly lightweight. But Sandler delivers the kind of knockout performance that even his staunchest defenders probably didn't realize he had in him.
'No es la mejor película de P.T. Anderson, pero si es una mucho mejor opción que la mayoría de las que abundan en la cartelera'
In the end, Punch-Drunk Love is one of those films that I wanted to like much more than I actually did. Sometimes, that's enough.
In his effort to 'redefine' the romantic comedy, Anderson has made a film that is neither romantic nor funny.
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