Stop the world, I want to get off. Just when I think I've seen everything, something comes along and shakes my beliefs, my faith, my understanding of the universe to the core. I saw an Adam Sandler film I liked - check that, loved.
I went in to _Punch Drunk Love_ with an ear full of positive reviews and glowing praise, but deep in side I keept thinking "These people can't be right. They must be talking about another movie." As I sat there, alone in the darkness, I found myself riveted to the screen. It wasn't just the story; it wasn't just the look of the film; I have to admit that it was Sandler himself. What P.T. Anderson has done with _PunchDrunk Love_ is nothing short of a miracle. He takes a "Sandler" type character, Barry Egan, a socially awkward young man with some violent tendencies, and places him in the real world and in real situations. Rather than laugh at the awkwardness of Barry, we connect emotionally with him - feeling for him as Anderson exposes, layer by layer, the circumstances that have made this guy the way he is.
The only brother in a family with 7 sisters, Barry is coddled, teased, harassed and tormented by his sisters. They call his work constantly, ignoring his claims of being with clients; they try to fix him up with women and then proceed to berate and belittle him. Barry has no one he can turn to until one of his sisters introduces him to Len (Emily Watson), whom he falls in love with.
Watching Egan try to fit in might remind one of a half sozen of Sandler's other comdies, but this one is different. Egan isn't the butt of the joke - there is no joke. Acceptance doesn't come with winning a football game or winning a golf game, it comes from loving and being loved