PTA's interesting but ultimately unsatisfying tale about the dizzy effect love has when it enters the life of a solitary small business executive (Adam Sandler) in the form of an equally idiosyncratic young woman (Emily Watson).
PTA has almost dropped the 95% Scorsese impression and is trusting his own artistic impulses more (i.e. watch the scene where Sandler first talks to the sex worker on the phone) and the result falls somewhere between 'good' and 'disappointing'. (It actually feels like a 90 minute version of the romantic subplot of Terry GIlliam's The Fisher King with Sandler and Watson substituting for Robin Williams and Amanda Plummer.) His sheer love of film -not to mention film characters- and his over-ambitiousness are fantastic fuel for his creative fire making him the most exciting young filmmaker out there but he has yet to make his masterpiece. With his minutely detailed eye for casting (the actors he chose for Sandler's sisters), sets (Sandler's apartment), character nuances (the chocolate pudding), and his ear for sound (the use of silence before the car accident in the beginning sequence and Shelley Duvall's song -'Olive's Lament'- from Robert Altman's 'Popeye') he has the power and artistry to create a truly superb film: Punch Drunk Love feels like a work-in-progress or something similar to Orson Welles's butchered The Magnificent Ambersons.
Adam Sandler's angry psychotic comedy has been subverted and channeled into the character of Barry Egan and the results are more than impressive. When a comedic actor who's not known for having dramatic skills suddenly gets an opportunity to show his range, the effect can be refreshingly exhilarating -Lily Tomlin in Nashville, Richard Lewis in Drunks, Sandler here- and far more watchable than seeing a more well-regarded thesbian give us a 'theatrical' performance -Kevin Spacey in American Beauty or Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt. He beautifully sustains his characterization and shows that somewhere inside him is an artist who wants to come out.
The mentally unhinged intensity Emily Watson has brought to some of her film perfromances has bordered on emotional rape -Breaking the Waves, Hilary and Jackie- but Anderson wisely downplays that facet and cast her as Lena, his eye of the storm: she makes for an enchanting, warm, calm center and looks absolutely stunning in red. There's phenominal acting chemistry between she and Sandler even when their characters are just talking on the phone to one another and PDL is worth seeing just for the scenes they have together.
The impulsive phone call to the sex line -and its subsequent repercussions- feels like an amatuerish, desperate attempt to kick the story into high gear and weakens the movie. The scene where Barry and Lena engage in pre-coital verbal violence also sticks out because this seems like a cheap nod to the audience for a laugh -and indeed the large college audience I saw the film with did laugh- and comes closer to Sandler's old routines than anything else in the film. It's an intrusion on his performance because he has moved beyond 'working the crowd'. PDL comes as close to a Godard film -in that you have no idea what's going to happen and there's such high risks being taken in every scene- made by an American director yet; however, it lacks a master's touch.
PTA has almost dropped the 95% Scorsese impression and is trusting his own artistic impulses more (i.e. watch the scene where Sandler first talks to the sex worker on the phone) and the result falls somewhere between 'good' and 'disappointing'. (It actually feels like a 90 minute version of the romantic subplot of Terry GIlliam's The Fisher King with Sandler and Watson substituting for Robin Williams and Amanda Plummer.) His sheer love of film -not to mention film characters- and his over-ambitiousness are fantastic fuel for his creative fire making him the most exciting young filmmaker out there but he has yet to make his masterpiece. With his minutely detailed eye for casting (the actors he chose for Sandler's sisters), sets (Sandler's apartment), character nuances (the chocolate pudding), and his ear for sound (the use of silence before the car accident in the beginning sequence and Shelley Duvall's song -'Olive's Lament'- from Robert Altman's 'Popeye') he has the power and artistry to create a truly superb film: Punch Drunk Love feels like a work-in-progress or something similar to Orson Welles's butchered The Magnificent Ambersons.
Adam Sandler's angry psychotic comedy has been subverted and channeled into the character of Barry Egan and the results are more than impressive. When a comedic actor who's not known for having dramatic skills suddenly gets an opportunity to show his range, the effect can be refreshingly exhilarating -Lily Tomlin in Nashville, Richard Lewis in Drunks, Sandler here- and far more watchable than seeing a more well-regarded thesbian give us a 'theatrical' performance -Kevin Spacey in American Beauty or Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt. He beautifully sustains his characterization and shows that somewhere inside him is an artist who wants to come out.
The mentally unhinged intensity Emily Watson has brought to some of her film perfromances has bordered on emotional rape -Breaking the Waves, Hilary and Jackie- but Anderson wisely downplays that facet and cast her as Lena, his eye of the storm: she makes for an enchanting, warm, calm center and looks absolutely stunning in red. There's phenominal acting chemistry between she and Sandler even when their characters are just talking on the phone to one another and PDL is worth seeing just for the scenes they have together.
The impulsive phone call to the sex line -and its subsequent repercussions- feels like an amatuerish, desperate attempt to kick the story into high gear and weakens the movie. The scene where Barry and Lena engage in pre-coital verbal violence also sticks out because this seems like a cheap nod to the audience for a laugh -and indeed the large college audience I saw the film with did laugh- and comes closer to Sandler's old routines than anything else in the film. It's an intrusion on his performance because he has moved beyond 'working the crowd'. PDL comes as close to a Godard film -in that you have no idea what's going to happen and there's such high risks being taken in every scene- made by an American director yet; however, it lacks a master's touch.