For once, Adam Sandler has a made a good
film. We’ve seen him evolve over the years, and
his comedic efforts have been quite funny at
times, but he had never captured that magical
spark; until now. It’s amazing that a studio
would actually let him act in a serious film,
and it’s even more amazing that they would sign
him to it. To my surprise, his character was
actually well-acted, and he is never hard to
picture in this new type of role because of the
stylish sense of charisma he was able to use; we
even get some of his great unintentional humor
along the way. Many would refer to Punch
Drunk Love as a dark comedy, but I believe
that it is a one-hundred percent pure drama
flick. The groundbreaking performances from
Sandler and Watson, sensational direction by P.T.
Anderson, thoroughly written screenplay, and
intriguing concept make it much more than just
worthwhile.
In the film, Sandler plays Barry Eagan, the
owner of a business who sells junky toiletries
and miscellaneous home improvement goods, which
aren’t of high-quality either. He is a sad,
lonely, and depressed man who has no love life
whatsoever. When the pain gets to be too much,
he decides to buy a girl on a phone sex hotline.
The company asks him for his name, address,
credit card number and expiration date, and
social security number in order to verify that
the credit card is real. He is very frightened
by giving these things out to an unreliable
company, but they say that confidentiality is
their biggest policy. He has a blast when he
talks to a girl named
Georgia
the first night he calls the line, and hangs up
the phone sexually enlightened, but the next day
something very unexpected happens. The company
has his telephone number, and she keeps calling
him back; they are stalking him and he has no
way of stopping them. He must get away from
them, and how is he going to do this? Fly to
another state. How is going to afford this?
Frequent flyer miles. How is he going to get
these? Redeem pudding UPC codes to earn them!
All of this is very amusing, but at the same
time is taken very seriously by the audience.
Along the way, he develops an affair with Emily
Watson’s character, Lena Leonard, more
thoroughly discussed in the next paragraph, and
goes on vacation with her when he is trying to
run away from the men that are stalking him from
the phone-sex agency.
Sandler was excellent, and his performance
can be referred to as a “breakthrough”, but now
I must take the time to talk about a more widely
used actress’s performance; that of Emily
Watson. In Punch Drunk Love and Red
Dragon, two films that have been released in
the last month starring Watson, have been made
better by her performances. She always chooses
the most challenging and interesting of roles,
and that’s what makes her characters so great to
watch. In this film, she plays Lena Leonard, a
character whom Barry Eagan (Sandler) falls upon.
She is a friend of his sister, who really would
like to go out with him. As the film moves on,
they start to have rather deep feelings for each
other, which ends up supporting the climax and
resolution of the film. She works as almost any
character, and is good in any; more simply put
as impenetrable.
The direction, by P.T. Anderson, is very
interesting and unique. He very rarely zooms
with the camera, and almost all of the shots are
still, dark, and far from the foreground of the
scene; this gives the entire picture a deep,
depressing, and sad feeling, which is exactly
what he went for, and was supposed to do. I
especially enjoyed the variety of colors he used
during the scene transitions and the way he let
an enormous amount of light hit the lens of the
camera. The creepy original score combined with
his works perfectly, and together they made a
dizzy, but masterful piece. As a whole, Punch
Drunk Love works in more ways than not.
Punch Drunk Love has its errors, but
it is still enjoyable to watch; primarily
because of Adam Sandler and Emily Watson. The
direction is entangled in a catchy original
score, and is done by the book, but has its own
unique flair; almost because it is too
simplistic. The screenplay isn’t anything
magnificently special, but it is unique and
individual, and that’s what I admired about it.
The entire film is basic, but it is well made;
one of the better qualities that indies have.
Punch Drunk Love deserves a strong three and
a half bucket recommendation from me.
-Danny, Bucket
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