PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. (2003)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
PTA’s second best film in a (to date) tremendous career is quite unlike anything he had made previously (or since, for that matter). The same indie aficionados who had proclaimed his as a visionary, a genius, or the rightful heir to Robert Altman’s crown, were appalled that he was making a film with Adam Sandler.
Not me, I was already a fan of Sandler’s, although this remains, by far, his best performance and his best film. It’s a heady, frenetic and busy film, one with a number of brilliant moments, from the superb, unsettling opening sequence and then throughout.
Sandler plays a solitary brother to a gaggle of sisters, a man with rage issues, who is (erroneously) delivered a harmonium, which leads him to embark on a romantic journey with a mysterious woman, played by Emily Watson. Luis Guzman and Philip Seymour Hoffman appear in supporting roles, and give terrific performances.
It’s the sound design and look of the film that really astound, though. Anderson has set up the film like a classic musical in terms of the visuals – most notably encapsulated in the film’s poster image. It’s a film that lurches you from one moment to the next, but on a rewatch, that becomes an obvious choice from Anderson, who handles the narrative as adroitly as he did with BOOGIE NIGHTS or MAGNOLIA, but in a less showy manner. It’s a brilliant film, one with a pounding soundtrack that echoes the relentlessness of the raw emotion on display.
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