Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest exploration of the magical affects of fate and coincidence, “Punch-Drunk Love,” is a shy romantic comedy that leaves something to be desired from the cast and the plot — too weird for Sandler’s usual fan base and too insubstantial to please the indie crowd.
“Punch-Drunk Love” stars Adam Sandler (“Mr. Deeds”) as the morose, lonely businessman Barry Egan, who is trying to tune his life into harmony. In between taking advantage of an airline’s frequent-flier promotions on Healthy Choice foods, learning to play the harmonium and manufacturing and selling “Fungers” (novelty fun plungers), Barry is tormented by his seven sisters, victimized by an extortion/phone-sex operation led by Dean Trumbell (Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Almost Famous”) and endlessly pursued by the lovely Lena Leonard (Emily Watson, “Gosford Park”).
Anderson’s generally long movies — “Magnolia” runs for just over three-and-a-half hours — allow for his brilliant plots to form and slowly build on the viewer until they find themselves crying and singing along with the cast to a wonderfully included soundtrack. But the too-short hour and thirty minutes of “Punch-Drunk Love” work more to separate the viewer from the movie, with a pace that is as volatile as the main character’s mood.
In one scene, as Barry struggles with his phone-sex assailant, his sister and Lena approach him for a date, Barry yells at his partner Lance (Luis Guzmín, “Traffic”) about some imaginary associate, a bunch of boxes in the background fall, and Barry plays his new harmonium. The wonderful aspect of the film is how perfectly orchestrated the entire scene is, but at the same time, this much at once causes a “what just happened?” response from the viewer.
The film does have the classic, redeeming, Anderson touch, though, opening with a visual metaphor that summarizes the themes and helps tie the film together. But as the very first scene, it only confuses. The cinematography intertwines with the movements in the film, creating an eloquent view that reveals more than just actions.
And the structure of the film, from depression to love, does help create an oddly warm feeling, separating “Punch-Drunk Love” from the standard romantic comedy. The movie resembles the remarriage comedies of the ’40s, with Sandler’s blue suit (which he is comically questioned about wearing) and the key-hole fades that cut love scenes short.
The cast does an excellent job portraying characters that are simply uninterruptible. Besides Sandler’s excellent quirks — he has this habit of putting one hand in a pocket, removing it, leaning on a wall with it, then putting his hand back in his pocket — his performance is bland, confusing plainness for loneliness and violence for frustration.
Watson is cute, but her wide blue eyes and beautiful smile fail to convey her fascination with Sandler’s character. Together, they are too subdued to make their love believable.
With a final message resembling a line from a Dave Matthews Band song — “I have a love in my life, and it gives me more strength than you could ever understand,” the film wanes away from Anderson’s poetic elegance and is replaced with, well, a Dave Matthews lyric. Despite the failure of the film to achieve the feel that “Magnolia” and “Boogie Nights” evoked, “Punch-Drunk Love” is still entertaining and definitely worth checking out.
Grade: B