November 15, 2003
Punch-Drunk Love
Paul Thomas Anderson wrote and directed this movie. If you've seen any of his other work (Magnolia especially), just knowing that tells you that the movie is going to be an experience.
Adam Sandler plays Barry Egan. He's got his own business (novelty toilet plungers, but there's only one gag having to do with that (and it's in the preview)). He's got a whole raft of older sisters who are nearly indistinguishable from one another.
The events of the film are more or less mundane, but they paint a picture of Sandler's character. He starts off the movie afraid and confused, but as he begins to fall in love with Emily Watson's character, he starts pushing through the fear and acting out of love. This is complicated by the fact that having grown up with a raft of sisters who express their love for him by teasing him incessantly, his reactions to his feelings of love are all tied up with the feelings of angry frustration that his sisters have always inspired in him.
The DVD has some surreal extra features including some deleted scenes that further illuminate this contradictory array of feelings that Sandler operates under. Emily Watson is an interesting choice as his love interest, playing the part as both clumsily seductive and strangely maternal. It's a weird little movie. Good, though.
Posted by jeffy at November 15, 2003 06:40 PM