PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. (2002) WRITTEN, CO-PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON. STARRING ADAM SANDLER, EMILY WATSON, LUIS GUZMAN AND PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
Believe it or not, this is the first Adam Sandler film I've ever properly watched, although I've been hearing about him and his films for years. I mostly heard that his films weren't too great, but I actually really enjoyed PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, which is billed as 'his first dramatic role.'
Does that mean that this is his first ever film? I'm not too sure what that means, to be honest with you. It would seem to imply that it's his first straight role as opposed to a comedic role, but this film's very much a comedy.
It's a romantic comedy, to be perfectly accurate, so those amongst you who only watch rom-coms when you're forced to under pain of death by your wives or girlfriends have my permission to stop reading now and go off somewhere private where you can crush beer cans against your foreheads or whatever it is ye like to do for fun...!
Adam Sandler does a really good job in the lead role here, in my humble opinion. He plays Barry Egan, an American salesman who runs his own little business selling and making novelty toilet plungers. I'm not too sure how high the demand is for these decidedly strange items, but Barry lives in a nice apartment, has a credit card and wears a nice blue suit to work so on the surface anyway, things seem to be going all right for him in the business sense.
Things are going less swimmingly in the personal sense. Barry has seven sisters who drive him mad, he has an anger problem (and a crying problem!) that's seemingly been allowed to go un-addressed for some time and he's also cripplingly lonely for female company, even though he's a nice-looking guy with a few quid in his pocket.
Bit eccentric, though, and his social skills could do with a bit of a spit-'n'-polish. Though it's not mentioned, he has some of the symptoms of Aspergers' Syndrome which would put him on the Autism Spectrum a little bit, but I'm pretty sure the film-makers just intended to convey a slightly odd fellow with quirky mannerisms whose attempts to woo the opposite sex would always prove inept and comical. Until he met the right woman, that is...
In Barry's attempts to dispel the loneliness, he hilariously calls a phone-sex chatline and attempts to have a real conversation with Georgia, the girl he gets connected to. Naturally, that doesn't work out too well. He's trying to get to know her as a person, and she's gabbing on nineteen-to-the-dozen about her shaved pussy and she also wants to know if he's pantless and jacking off yet, the dirty slut...!
Well, I'm sure you guys have heard how these things (allegedly) work. Not that any of ye would ever actually call a nasty phone-sex chatline, of course. Ye're all little angels, aren't ye, my pets...?
As if all that weren't expensive enough, Georgia, who now has Barry's credit card number, social security number, real name and home address, decides that poor Bazza might be a good guy to touch up for a few extra quid. Why, she ain't nuthin' but a gold-digger...! Well, she ain't messin' with no broke... Ah well, you guys know the rest.
When Barry categorically refuses to give in to her efforts at extortion, however, she sets her dogs on him. Four big blonde dogs, to be precise, the timing of which is awkward for Barry as he's finally met a real woman, believe it or not...
I don't like her. Her name is Lena, she's a friend of his mad sister's (what am I saying, they're ALL f***ing mad!) and she's played by Emily Watson, an English actress whom I've never liked because she's so utterly quiet and miserable with a big puss-face on her in everything I've ever seen her in: ANGELA'S ASHES, APPROPRIATE ADULT, SUNSHINE AND ORANGES and so on and so forth.
In this film, she plays the kind of thirty-something single English woman desperate to find a man that you might find in a BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY- type movie. I find this kind of woman sad and annoying in the extreme, like the desperate chicks from SEX AND THE CITY, the American equivalent. And I'm nothing like these women, by the way, just because I haven't found the right
man myself yet! I'm just fussy, that's all.
While I personally can't stand to look at Lena's miserable face or listen to her quiet talking (miaow!), Barry is extremely taken by her. If he can just sort out his problems with the dangerous phone-sex people, he might just be in with a chance...
The late Philip Seymour Hoffman is terrific (and very sexy!) as the Mattress Man and the brains (and brawn) behind the phone-sex operation. Luis Guzman is in here too playing a Latino employee who doesn't do a whole lot but is nice, likeable and cuddly as only he can.
I've always liked him in other things I've seen him in, in which he was mostly playing... you guessed it, a Latino employee who doesn't do a whole lot but is nice, likeable and cuddly...!...!
This witty comedy has a wonderful musical score by Jon Brion which is termed baroque-futurist by the promotional material. I haven't got a bull's notion what that means but it was great to listen to and the marvellously eye-catching and unusual artwork of Jeremy Blake that featured throughout the film livened things up no end as well.
The film is out on release (Blu-Ray) from November 21st 2016 from THE CRITERION COLLECTION and it will feature more extras than you can shake a stick at. I personally went straight to the deleted scene featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman's disastrous but hilarious commercial for his mattress emporium. They really should have left that in...!
I'm worried for the future of Barry and Lena, though. They might make a really cute couple but, when all is said and done, Barry still has an unresolved problem with rage which no attempts were made to fix in the film.
Maybe it all stems from being the only boy amongst seven loud, bossy and domineering sisters. That'd be enough to drive any man mad. Whatever the reason for the outbursts of rage, he needs anger management, pronto, for Lena's sake now as well as his own. And will the harmonium ever be returned to its rightful owner...?
Also, I'm worried about the, like, ten billion cartons of chocolate pudding Barry purchased purely for the frequent flyer miles you get when you buy them. Unless he has refrigeration space for all ten billion cartons (or however many there are!), they will start to spoil. Think of the waste, people. Erm, anyone got a spoon...?
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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