Arnold
CibbuanoPunch-Drunk Love
August 22nd 2006 04:58
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Director Paul Thomas Anderson's follow-up to the brilliant 'Boogie Nights' and 'Magnolia' is a very welcome film indeed. And, weighing in at a refreshingly brisk 95 minutes, it's a nice change of pace from the heavy and tense 'Magnolia'.
Sandler plays the pathologically shy Barry Egan who, whilst bordering on the outright bizarre, cuts a rather lonely and pathetic figure even against his annoying multitude of raven-haired sisters. The highly-underrated Emily Watson plays Lena Leonard, a somewhat desperate woman who seeks Barry out in the hope of dating him. In the tried and true tradition of romances, obstacles come between their would-be love. However, unlike most romances, these obstacles include blackmail, phone-sex lines and Mormon furniture-salesmen.
Like the director's previous films, it all balances precariously somewhere between comedy and tragedy. It's chaotic and tense, and the use of stark imagery and a wonderful cacophony of music and sound does a lot to build the sense of worry that barrages Sandler's character. There's also an underlying simplicity at work here that separates this film from the complex ensemble-work of 'Boogie Nights' and 'Magnolia'. The film almost solely consists of Sandler and Watson in term of character-focus, and whilst (thankfully) we're spared a serious Adam Sandler sex scene, it's good to see that he does possess some acting ability that could come in handy when the laughter finally stops next time he decides to make a comedy about a retard with some sort of amazing sporting ability.
This is a 'beautiful' film, it's quirky but not in a manner that disables it's ability to be moving -and this seems to be something Paul Thomas Anderson excels at. Bring on ‘There Will Be Blood’, the next Anderson film.
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