DVD Review: Punch Drunk Love (C)

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Luis Guzman
MPAA: R
Grade: C

Review by Scott Standish

I had a feeling that I was going to be let down by this one but frankly I expected the problem to be Adam Sandler. But surprise, surprise: Sandler is pretty darn good in this. Strangely enough it is P.T. Anderson's rather heavy handed direction that sabotages Punch-Drunk Love. Written and directed by Anderson, the man behind the fantastic Hard Eight, the mesmerizing Boogie Nights and the over the top Magnolia, this latest comedy-drama, like the main character, just doesn't seem to fit.

Sandler gives a very good performance in Punch-Drunk Love as Barry Egan, a successful businessman with some social interaction problems: mainly shyness and anger management (never a good combo). Barry calls a phone sex line and gives the person on the other end way too much personal information which leads to them blackmailing him. Meanwhile, Barry is trying to woo the lovely and surprisingly interested Lena Leonard. We don't learn much about Lena (one of the main faults of the movie) other than she's pretty, smart, and for some reason, attracted to dorky weird guys with anger management issues (?).

Punch-Drunk Love is one of those films that leaves you with more questions than answers. Why not include more background info on Lena? Why does she fall for this violent, mumbling fellow who wears the same suit every day? What does the phone sex blackmail have to do with the main love story here?

The audio in Punch-Drunk Love is surprisingly bad. The film has bongo music blasting in the background of several key scenes and its so loud that you can barely hear the dialogue. To make matters worse, Barry Egan character is a low talking mumbler and Emily Watson has a peculiar accent that does not rise above the background sound mix.

I think P.T. Anderson is a fantastic director, but obviously this one just didn't work for me.

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