Review of Punch-Drunk Love (2002) by Darien S — 14 Feb 2013

P.T. Anderson has a gift for unique camera angles and that is utilized to great effect in this film as well. There are some truly great shots that stand out as being vibrant and always unpredictable. Adam Sandler, too, is a wonder in this film.

Why he is in such shitty films, I can't imagine, because he is great in this. He is the classic aimless and timid protagonist (although with Anderson seasoning) who, upon falling in love with Emily Watson, starts becoming a more aggressive individual.

Unfortunately, that trope has been played out so many times and I feel like this film is a cinematographer's wet dream but little else in the way of substance. The film is occasionally funny but when it isn't predictable it is utterly and completely pointless.

I understand films that have a certain ambiguity to them (The Master is wonderfully enigmatic) but this film, for the first thirty minutes, doesn't seem to go anywhere. Then I realize where the film is going and it becomes a predictable affair.

It does have some whimsical moments, though. A piano is a catalyst for Sandler's transformation as he does battle with an angry Phillip Seymour Hoffman who steals some scenes (as he always does). Sandler is hilarious.

I never thought I'd say it. But he is. In this. Never again.