It's one thing to be a loser sometimes. You know, whatever, we all have our stupid days. Like when you do an entire class presentation with your fly unzipped. Or when you lock your keys in the car with it still running, call a locksmith to come help, then realize you have a spare key in your wallet. Or when you ask if Norwegians are from Norwegia. OK, I'll stop remembering other people's less brilliant moments (they're not mine, I swear), because you've had yours too, and my words are beginning to seem irrelevant.
The point is
it's an entirely different thing to be a sporadic mental case, abnormally yet inconsistently quirky, alienating to others, passive-aggressive to an alarming degree, almost to the point of danger. These are the characteristics of Paul Thomas Anderson's protagonist in Anderson's latest, critically applauded (why, I do not know) movie, "Punch-Drunk Love."
The first shot of the movie sees Adam "Happy Gilmore" Sandler hunched over at a junked up, decrepit desk pushed into the corner of an empty, cold, warehouse-like space. Sandler's character, Barry Egan, immediately is set up as an eccentric, socially awkward and at times completely unlikable guy. Why is he so weird? The only explanation is that he's got seven sisters who drive him crazy.
Also unexplained is an atrocious car crash in the first scene followed by the appearance of a reed organ in the middle of the road
- these instances create a semi-magical worldview with an ulterior meaning that is not replicated in any substantial way throughout the rest of the movie.
Anyway, one day Barry, feeling lonelier than usual, makes a call to a phone sex service. After foolishly giving the operator his credit card information and address, he is connected with "Georgia," and they talk extensively before doing their phone sex business. Soon Georgia starts calling frequently to harass him for money, and when he declines to pay up, she makes his life a living hell in the form of her pimp man (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his most uninteresting roles to date) and his cronies.
Enter Lena Leonard (Emily Watson) to make Barry's life a living heaven! ("Hooray!" shout the idealists. "Here we go again," lament the realists.) Lena is first seen subtly illuminated by a ray of sunlight. Clearly, she is The One.
"Punch-Drunk Love" is a bit of a departure for writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson ("Boogie Nights," "Magnolia"). Although he's still working with characters in the midst of a fall from grace -- determined to instill them with new dignity while exploring the omnipotence of positive interpersonal relationships -- the difference is in the form.
This time around, Anderson has tried a genre piece, taking the cue from the Coen brothers, who generally work within time periods like the Depression or 40s film noir. Unfortunately, the romantic comedy is Anderson's chosen genre, as if it wasn't prevalent enough already.
And Anderson's nuances on the romantic comedy genre are little more than trite, as he adds some rather annoying quirks and an unlikely "Revenge of the XXX Hotline" subplot to an otherwise conventional story line.
Also different is the story's style. Anderson has thrown away his typical multi-layered story and improv-based ensemble cast, which worked, goshdarnit, in favor of a sole main character and a few weak peripherals (including Hoffman and another Anderson favorite, Luis Guzman, as Barry's work associate).
That's right, it's Sandler's movie. Some have said it's a good departure for Sandler, who has been stuck in comic roles since his work on "Saturday Night Live." I beg to differ.
Sandler as usual gives his role some little boy charm, which works for the character. Otherwise, he'd be one-dimensionally annoying. But I defy anyone reading this to try to take Sandler seriously as he runs away from mean people, shrieking intermittently, or when he confesses of crying spells and then breaks into one.
Sure, these scenes are meant to be somewhat humorous. But there is a darkness in Egan that needs to be brought out for his character to be understood, and Sandler just doesn't manage to dig that deep. For a much more provocative portrayal of a socially awkward man in the throes of love, see Mike White's Buck in 2000's "Chuck and Buck."
And now for Lena. Watson does a decent job as Lena, but she doesn't have much to work with -- a fault of the script instead of the actress. Lena exists solely to be Barry's lover, which may be intentional. She's his angel, in a way. But then Anderson's story attempts to give her a few quirks to match Barry's, which are underdeveloped and likely an afterthought.
Thus we are torn between seeing Lena as a real, multifaceted though anemic, character, or seeing her as a one-trick pony, there only for Barry's good. Why Lena falls for Barry is a mystery. But she does, and we must accept that if we are to accept anything in the story line. To my chagrin, I could accept nothing.
That is not to say that "Punch-Drunk Love" does not have some interesting moments, at least visually. The image of Barry and Lena becoming one two-headed silhouette among other silhouettesis really beautiful. Robert Elswit's cinematography is well done, but nowhere near as extraordinary as his work in "Boogie Nights" or "Magnolia." And the soundtrack, though often invasive, adds a nice lighthearted touch to some of the more heavy-handed scenes. But as a whole, "Punch-Drunk Love" is nothing to write home about.
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