I cannot believe this hasn’t been reviewed yet!

Punch Drunk Love is one of my favorites, but it is my husband’s all time favorite movie. Directed by P.T. Anderson, this film is a study on color (odd flashes of colored light across various shots, particularly when there are intense emotions), and it’s Adam Sandler gives a fantastic performance as Barry Egan, a man with a pretty decent anger problem. He has a gaggle of sisters who constantly want to give him advice, but wind up driving him to do crazy things like break windows at a party. Barry tries to live a normal life. He owns a small business and has recently purchased a suit, but he can’t seem to get it right. He’s very obviously lonely, despite his large family that is trying to dig their way into his life, and he has a very quiet and awkward personality until he’s set off by something (usually something one of his sisters has done) and breaks into a fit of rage. When you meet him he’s in the process of trying to escape by formulating a scam, of sorts, involving Healthy Choice pudding. He finds a small piano by the side of the road one day and not knowing who it belongs to, he’s bringing it into his office when he meets Lena (Emily Watson), who his sister, Elizabeth (Mary Lynn Rajskub) (who seems to be the ring-leader in egging him on) was planning on setting him up with.

Meeting Lena must punctuate his loneliness, so that night he goes back to his very bare and neutral apartment alone, finds a newspaper ad for a phone sex line, and calls it just to have someone to talk to. She makes herself, of course, sound like she cares about him and is interested in what he has to say, all the while trying to seduce him into what she typically does for a job, and he is hesitant to give out any information but winds up doing it anyway. She continues calling him throughout the next several days, and as the relationship between Barry and Lena becomes serious he becomes much more headstrong and is not willing to put up with the same treatment he’s received his whole life. Eventually his scam pays off and he becomes a jetsetter, and he and Lena become quite close, without Elizabeth knowing. The real turning point is when the phone sex scam becomes serious and workers for the furniture store, which is a front for the phone sex line, wind up hurting Lena and this puts Barry’s anger issue to good use when he flies to California to meet the leader of the phone sex ring, Dean Trumbell (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who plays the grossest scumbag and it really fits him. Barry’s self worth and self esteem is through the roof and he delivers a monologue that has you rooting for him at the edge of your seat.

This movie is fantastic. The cinematography is beautiful with the colors (even the color of the suit Barry wears every day). It’s an easy to follow story that allows you to either watch it as entertainment, or read a lot more into it making it a think-piece. I love Sandler in serious roles and this one doesn’t disappoint. You feel each emotion Barry is feeling, especially the frustration with his family members, and it’s got a really great ending that will leave you feeling really great. I definitely recommend this movie if you haven’t seen it already. It was released in 2002 so it is a bit older, but it hasn’t lost its luster at all. P.T. Anderson is a genius, we already knew that, and he delivers with Punch Drunk Love. Five stars from me!