Punch-Drunk Love: A Compelling Romance
“I have a love in my life. It makes me stronger than anything you can imagine.”
I think Punch-Drunk Love might be the love in my life that makes me stronger than anything anyone can imagine. Now obviously I’m eradicating that it makes me stronger than anyone can ever imagine aspect, but not so much the love part. I absolutely loved this film. So much in fact that I managed to squeeze it into my top ten. Currently, it sits at sixth place just behind Alfred Hitchock’s Rear Window.
The promotion material for Punch-Drunk love markets the film as a romance, and even though it is, I saw this film more as a self-discovery tale of hurt and damaged man. The hurt man being Barry Egan (Adam Sandler.) He’s hurt from the abuse of his seven sisters which plays both into his volatility and his social awkwardness.
In the film, Barry meets Lena Leonard (Emily Watson, a woman who is also somewhat hurt. Although her hurt is left more ambiguous. It isn’t directly said how she is hurt, but you know she is, somehow. But after these two characters first meet and start striking up a conversation, you feel this instant, beautiful, and touching chemistry between them.
As the film progresses you notice that Lena accepts Bary for who he is and the issues he has. She doesn’t hurt him in any way, but instead encourages him and makes him happy. This treatment from Lena leads him to self-discovery. This then leads him to discover he is capable of showing more humanly feelings besides anxiety, depression, anger, and even fear.
Performance-wise, this film was tremendous. The two main actors in this film are Adam Sandler and Emily Watson, and they both did great. Adam Sandler is perfect in portraying the sad emotions of Barry Egan. He makes the character realistic and very relatable. To me, this is his only other good film performance, the other one being in Uncut Gems. I really need to watch Uncut Gems soon so I can compare the performances and see which one was better.
Emily Watson is also perfect in portraying Lena Leonard, who is loving and accepting but also hurt. Like Sandler, she is perfect at showing the emotions of her character. Also like Sandler, she makes the character really realistic and very relatable.
Besides them, I thought the supporting cast was great. Especially Phillip Seymour Hoffman. His character isn’t in the film for that long, but when he was, I had a complete blast. His character was also very comical and made me laugh. Mainly when he had the “shut up” conversation with Adam Sandler’s character.
Aside from that, the film has brilliant uses of symbolism sprinkled throughout 1 hour and 36-minute runtime. The main instance of symbolism that I saw was that of the piano that was dropped off right outside Barry’s work. It symbolizes desire, it symbolizes the desire to feel happy and the desire to be loved. That is why Barry is constantly attracted to it, and always goes near it every time he can. He always desires happiness and love. Another instance of symbolism I saw Barry’s blue suit. It really represents 2 things. First, it represents Barry’s emotional state. Most times blue represents sadness. And for a good majority of the film, that’s what Barry is. Sad.
The suit can also symbolize that he wants to be more than he already is, he wants to be more than just sad and angry. There is even symbolism in certain shots, specifically the most iconic and most famous shot of this film. The shot being where Barry and Lena finally meet back up in Hawaii and share a very embracing, heartfelt, and loving kiss. The 2 characters are completely blacked out, you can’t see anything except for their outlines. But everything around them has color and is bright. Now, this can come to be a little bit more interpretive, but I thought the shot basically shows that anyone can fall in love. Anyone can find happiness in another even if you are sad or angered.
5/5.
