This film is in my good friend's top four films, and it recently was added to Netflix, so I was eager to watch what I heard was an excellent Adam Sandler performance. Lo and behold, I was really impressed. I would describe this movie as an extremely stylish, yet never ending mood swing. There were highs and lows but with an elegant touch, one you don't see from films very often. Punch-Drunk Love follows entrepreneur Barry Egan, a lonely man with a stressed mentality, who really just wants to love and be loved. He is known to occasionally show demonstrations of anger, or to put it casually, "flip out," and his opinionated sisters always trying to throw women at him doesn't help much. But when the gentle and considerate Lena arrives, Barry is taken. This, along with a corrupt phone-sex business he desperately calls one evening creates a mix of two genres that somehow really works well. The movie only takes place over a couple of days, which is remarkable considering everything that happens within that timeline. It did have a Birdman-like feel though at a couple of points in the movie- like it was all happening in a single shot, which was rather effective to get you to feel like you were in the moment with these people. Sandler and Emily Watson have surprisingly incredible chemistry, and their romance was both believable and touching. I'll admit, I didn't know much about this film before I watched it, and I don't think this is exactly what I was expecting. It's suavely chaotic, as well as romantic and even perhaps surreal at times. I do wish they had given a little more time to Barry and Lena just talking, because everything moved fast and before you knew it the movie was over. Needless to say, Paul Thomas Anderson has a way with the art of film and transitioning, and I really did like this film. Down to the color choices and production design everything just flowed beautifully. A really cool film that surprised me.
