Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Written and Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzman.
I'm not the biggest fan of Adam Sandler. He's been in some funny movies but even Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison have lost some of their appeal as I've gotten older. Don't get me wrong, I'd take them over anything Andy Dick or Rob Schneider does any day but it just doesn't make me laugh any more.
So imagine how I felt when I first heard about his invovlement with Paul Thomas Anderson. The director of Boogie Nights and Magnolia teaming up with a guy who usually plays rage-filled man-children. In a sense he does so here as well but with Anderson at the helm it is less cartoonish, humbler and even beautiful.
This is a well shot film. The transitions and the simple music help create a different kind of love story and Sandler excels with the material. His showdown with the phone sex kingpin is the highlight of his performance. He goes all the way to Utah from Los Angeles in the same suit he's had on for days and telephone receiver in his hand to get out from under this guy's extortion racket.
It's a fun bit part for Philip Seymour Hoffman who is one of my favourite actors in Hollywood. He had been in every Paul Thomas Anderson movie until There Will Be Blood, hopefully he returns in the next project.
Emily Watson is so adorable in this. Her wide eyes, curious about the brother of her best friend. She helps him discover that he isn't the only one in the world with problems or screwed up thoughts. They complement one another and not in the conventional way.
It's a short and sweet romantic film with a sense of surreality floating over it. While Magnolia likely proved Anderson was a filmmaker with some resilience, Punch-Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood have shown he is not going to repeat himself.
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