Punch Drunk Love - Film Review

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love (2002) presents an unconventional mellow comedy with violent outbursts courtesy of our protagonist played here by Adam Sandler. The story follows Barry Egan (Sandler) a repressed man who allows those around him to walk all over him. These emotions seem to build and come out at inappropriate times, an example of this being at a family dinner party and another instance taking place at a restaurant.

The character clearly has psychological issues but he never veers in his behaviour so far that we lose sympathy for him as a character. At times through the direction we ourselves seem exposed to the same anxieties as the protagonist. When Barry receives repeated calls early into the film we ourselves find anger developing as an underlying tension continues to build. At times it really becomes frustrating to watch these scenes. It makes you want to scream in frustration at the mild mannered response he seems to retort with. If he just confronted the issues at hand earlier then he wouldn’t be at the point where he feels his only option is to violently lash out.

Yet on the other hand if it weren’t for these problems the rest of the story would have no room to unfold. His difficulties come from his problems with distancing himself from others. He tries to hide from his issues and in turn grows evermore withdrawn. Yearning for attention he turns to sex lines for his only human interaction outside of the workplace. He doesn’t use these services for sexual gratification, but in a way, he still uses this to fulfil something that is missing in his life, companionship.

As the film really progresses, it begins to intertwine two stories that are simultaneously unfolding. One story is an odd romance between Barry and one of his sisters work colleagues played by Emily Watson. Whilst parallel to this a worker from a sex line is blackmailing Barry. The stories follow arc types of romantic Hollywood cinema, this being the classic romantic comedy, and a blackmail plot in the mould of the classic film noirs. But even in this you are made aware of the modern variations. The couple are not exactly flawless. The man is mentally disturbed while Watson’s character just seems to be excepting of all his extremities. Whereas in the blackmailing plotline of a film noir, a character usually had a problem that they couldn’t talk to the police about, here however Barry could speak to the police but he choses not to because he is embarrassed about what has happened.

Punch Drunk Love really is a difficult one to describe. It’s unusual in the fact that none of the central characters are really all that stable. All of them seem to have their own detrimental flaws and yet they all still come across in an interesting manner. Violence in the film at times encompasses itself outlandishly; nevertheless the film still remains somewhat grounded, never reaching to far from reality. Yes the characters are flawed but they are aware of this to the most point. What matters here is that the protagonist appears to be trying to move away from this. He is trying to better himself and come out of his shell but it remains his anxieties and their effects that are the only things that may in future stand in his way.