Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
Background
Happy Gilmore. Billy Madison. Water Boy. Big Daddy. American auteur Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love? It was an unexpected and odd turn for Adam Sandler to star in a film of this caliber in 2002. Paul Thomas Anderson had reached significant heights in American cinema with his acclaimed hits Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia (1999). His fourth film, Punch-Drunk Love was announced to be a romantic comedy with Adam Sandler. But if anyone has seen a PTA film, they should expect that this would not be any ordinary rom-com. And it certainly is not. What we got instead is one of the best films of the 2000s and a career-best performance for Sandler.
Plot
It’s an odd movie. Sandler’s character, Barry, is a sad, angry, and lonely person. He’s a struggling salesman of toilet-related products (think novelty plungers). He is beset with seven overbearing sisters who mock his loneliness and impotence as a man. On one particularly lonely night, Barry calls up a phone sex line in hopes of connecting with someone else – not in a sexual way but in a human way. It’s a failure. But it gets worse once the phone sex line attempts to extort and blackmail Barry in exchange for more money. They constantly call and harass Barry, as Anderson’s constant background music forces the viewer to join in his increasing anxiety. Barry, fortunately, meets another lonely person through his sister along the way. Their first date is derailed when Barry has an emotional breakdown in the bathroom, shattering the mirror in a flurry of punches. Barry’s sad existence reaches another low in his failure with this chance for connection with the woman, Lena. There are a number of other side plots happening: the phone-sex extortion, Barry gathering flight rewards with pudding purchases, Lena’s business trip to Hawaii, and Barry’s fledgling business.
Key Scene
In the third act, the film’s tone is at a fever pitch and the viewer is desperate for a release. At this point, Barry and Lena’s relationship has endured its rocky start and is blossoming into a relationship. Barry used his pudding rewards to fly to Hawaii and re-connect with Lena, displaying his affections for her (which are reciprocated). Upon returning home, Barry is still being pursued by the phone-sex company, with higher stakes. Not only are they physically harassing him, but Lena is now with Barry and is also in danger. Four men from the company are dangerously pursuing Sandler in their car, wrecking into it and injuring Lena. Barry, inspired by his relationship with Lena and desperate to protect her, jumps out of his car and beats all four men with a tire iron. It is violent but justified. He is protecting his beloved and is seeking justice for being lied, extorted, harassed, and wronged. He then goes to Utah, where the supervisor of the phone-sex company resides as a mattress salesman. Barry confronts the supervisor (played by one of my favorite actors, the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman) in the intense climax. Barry yells, “I have so much strength inside of me. You have no idea. I have a love in my life. It makes me stronger than anything you can imagine. I would say ‘That's that’, Mattress Man.” His confrontation ends in victory and the phone-sex line no longer harasses him.
Interpretation/Analysis
Punch-Drunk Love is about loneliness and longing for connection. Barry is not interested in phone sex. He’s interested in repairing his brokenness through speaking and being with other humans. He wants to love and be loved. Barry is socially awkward, shy, angry, and depressed. At one point in the beginning of the film, he tells his brother-in-law (a doctor) that he is sad and looking for medical help. The doctor is not a psychiatrist and is unable to help him. Barry is so lonely, he’s desperate. The phone-sex line comes across in an ad and Barry’s desperation gets him into a precocious and increasingly dangerous situation. When he finally does find human connection, his past catches up with him violently, hurting his new love.
Could this be a modern parable about the devastating effects of pornography to cure human loneliness? I’m not sure what Paul Thomas Anderson would say, but my answer is a resounding yes. The effects of sexual and relational brokenness do not go away easily, and they can harm a person’s loved ones long after they take place. But what ultimately defeats relationship and sexual brokenness is (incoming cliché!) true love. From a biblical perspective, God’s love drives out fear and brokenness. It restores us, making us right and fulfilling our longings for connection and intimacy.
Where to watch: Hulu
by Mitch Wiley