Punch-Drunk Love

2002 • 95 minutes

About this movie

Adam Sandler and Emily Watson star in Punch-Drunk Love, an odd romantic comedy from gifted young director Paul Thomas Anderson. Sandler plays Barry Egan, a shy sad-sack with a great deal of repressed anger that occasionally bursts forth in sudden violent outrages, who falls in love with Lena Leonard (Emily Watson), a co-worker of one of Barry's seven sisters. After calling a phone-sex line, Barry is extorted by bad-guy Dean Trumbell (Anderson regular Philip Seymour Hoffman), who eventually sends four goons to assault Barry and get the money. This film was screened in competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, where Paul Thomas Anderson was named Best Director.

Ratings and reviews

A truly original and unique romance. Sandler plays a fragile loner who is desperate for kindness, and finds both it and rage in the same surprising story. The characters are eccentric but very believable, and funny yet so vulnerable that they are somehow heartbreaking at the same time. Far from Sandler's usual work, this is a mature and deep running story about human pain, played out in a simple and innocent tale that will stay with you a long time.

On PEA can pull this off