These days, an "Adam Sandler movie" is synonymous to many film lovers with laziness. It tends to evoke sloppy crapfests full of awful animal gags, gay panic jokes, and an excuse for Sandler and his friends to take a vacation while filming*. Save for the incredibly long (and often tedious) Funny People, he really hasn't stretched his limits too far in a while. Which makes Punch Drunk Love kind of an anomaly, a blip in his career that makes me wish he'd expand his horizons more often. Or at least work with better directors.
Unlike many of the characters he plays, Barry Egan is not the cool, detached master of everything around him, nor is he a immature man child. He certainly has some issues with anger and pent up frustration. An introvert, he seems to have a very complicated relationship with his seven outgoing sisters. Still, though he lives alone and doesn't get out much, he has his own company, which sells novelty plungers. It appears to be at least somewhat prosperous. Plus he has a plan to use pudding cups to get a lifetime's worth of airline miles.
Of course, then one day somebody abandons a harmonium, a car wrecks right in front of him, and a woman named Lena (the wonder Emily Watson) drops her car off for maintenance. Because it's early, she asks him to drop the keys off when the mechanics get in. That gives them an opportunity to meet cute (in a situation later revealed to be orchestrated by Barry's sister), they go on a date, he surprises her in Hawaii, he does something wrong, asks for forgiveness, and the rest is history. You know, the typical stuff found in most romantic comedies.
Of course, there's one catch. This romantic comedy is directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Besides it being well shot, well edited, and replete with a gorgeous color scheme, it also means it is a bit...warped. At various times Barry smashes a patio door, destroys a bathroom, and beats the hell out of a guy with a crowbar.
To be fair, the guy he beat with a crowbar had just rammed into his car with his truck, injuring Lena. The guy had rammed the truck because he been sent by a phone sex line owner to extort money from Barry. The thing he did wrong, that betrayed Lena's trust, was then running off and leaving her alone at the hospital, as he drove all the way to Utah to confront Dean Trumbell (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the Mattress Man and owner of the phone sex/extortion ring.
It's an impressive showdown that is more intense than any sort of scene where the two actually scuffled. Sandler shows an impressive ability to convey his sense of being wronged, while also showing that his love for Lena was giving him great confidence. And of course, Hoffman did his usual best as portraying his character as a slimy snake, willing to take it so far, but aware of when to walk away to avoid getting the living crap kicked out of him. And of course, it wouldn't be complete without the last bit.
I don't want to leave out Emily Watson from the praise of this movie. She does an excellent job of portraying a character that is in her own way kind of awkward, yet perhaps not quite as much as Sandler. A lesser actress in the part might not have been able to balance some of the rougher edges of Barry, which would have made their love story less sweet, and more unbelievable. She skirts the edge of being a MPDG, without crossing over it, something that is pretty hard to do.
Although this film was critically well received, particularly Sandler's performance, other less well received turns in films like Spanglish, Reign Over Me, and the aforementioned Funny People, Sandler appears to have given up trying to stretch his boundaries. This is kind of regretful, because he shows some talent for characters like this. Given the right director and the right script, he could pull off another career defining role, such as fellow SNL alum Bill Murray did with Rushmore and Lost in Translation. That isn't to say Sandler is the next Bill Murray**, but he could certainly be doing some interesting. To be fair, who wouldn't want to get paid large sums of money to hang out with your long time friends?
I have to admit that of the P.T. Anderson films I own (at this point all but Hard Eight), this is the one that I kind of forgot how much I enjoyed it. When I put together the DVD Case Pantheon, I for some reason thought it wasn't worthy of being up there. After a recent viewing of the film, I realized I was incorrect. Sorry, Adaptation, you're getting bumped. I don't care how heartfelt Donald's pleas to stay on the list were.
Verdict: Joins the Pantheon
Bumps Out: Adaptation
*That being said, the first two films that would be considered "Adam Sandler Films", Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore, I will fight to the death to defend their worth. If liking those movies is cool, I'm Miles Davis. Also, significant parts of The Waterboy and The Wedding Singer were pretty good as well.
**There will never be another Bill Murray. Sorry Will Ferrell, Will Forte, and others that have tried/will try in the future. You might get close, but you'll never be Murray.
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