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Punch-Drunk Love

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Punch-Drunk Love

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• Comedy
• Romance

• 2002
• Paul Thomas Anderson
• 91 mins
• 15

Summary

Romantic comedy drama starring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson. Californian businessman Barry Egan is shy, repressed and prone to the occasional destructive outburst. But when one of his overbearing sisters sets him up with a woman, he finally finds himself falling in love {--) only for events to turn awry when the boss of a phone-sex line starts demanding blackmail money.

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Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Stephen Hughes

Depending on your disposition towards quirky American comedies, this is either a truly original gem or a complete folly. Fans of director Paul Thomas Anderson's previous films Magnolia and Boogie Nights will be stunned - and as for fans of Adam Sandler, well, they won't know what's hit them. Sandler plays Barry Egan, the head of a bathroom novelties company who collects air-mile coupons in his spare time, is prone to uncontrollable rages and is mercilessly bullied by his seven sisters. In the first five minutes of the movie a car flips over outside his office, an old harmonium is abandoned and Emily Watson appears from nowhere and asks him to look after her car. Then things start to get really strange. Much has been made of lowbrow favourite Sandler teaming up with art house darling Anderson, but the curious combination works. Sandler's antisocial persona is given a surprising, touching twist that makes the volatile Egan entirely plausible, if still off-kilter, and he handles the movie's moments of slapstick and pathos with equal ease. It might take two viewings to make sense of this surreal, candid romance, and even then that might not help - but it doesn't matter. This is a film you just experience - it's illogical and beautiful, just like falling in love.

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7.3/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameBarry EganAdam SandlerLena LeonardEmily WatsonDean TrumbellPhilip Seymour HoffmanLanceLuis GuzmanElizabethMary Lynn RajskubSusanLisa SpectorKathleenJulie HermelinKathleenKaren HermelinRhondaHazel Mailloux

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Crew

rolenameDirectorPaul Thomas Anderson

Details

Theatrical distributor

Columbia TriStar

Released on

2003-02-07

Languages

English

Guidance

Contains swearing.

Available on

video, DVD and Blu-ray

Formats

Colour

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