Punch-Drunk Love
Lately I have been buying a lot of cheap DVDs, and somehow I could not resist getting this movie as well. I have had it on my watchlist for years (but a lot of movies are on that list for years unfortunately), and now that I saw it in the store yet again, I could not resist.
For the first 30 minutes, I had the impression that this DVD would be my first mispurchase, and that it wasn’t even worth the 3,50 euro I spent on it. But then, it dawned on me that everything that was weird and dilettant-looking in this movie might very well be done on purpose. Take the title scene (see above) in which they reunite in Hawaii, run towards each other and kiss: I realized that it was a brilliant idea not showing them kiss in a close-up, but to show their dark silhouettes blended with many other people’s silhouettes passing by. That was when I thought „This director knows what he’s doing“. This weird directing combined with even weirder music and especially some TV-show-like blurry pseudo-stylish inserts were most likely all to underline the feelings of our clumsy, yet aggressive main character.
In fact, the movie has started to become brilliant with the appearance of an amazing Emily Watson. She has these slightly creepy-cute-ish looking eyes and a :3 smile that gives her face very unique features. It feels like the role was written for her. Since she looks so likeable, you can even forgive her for being a little scheming and stalker-like at the very beginning. In fact, I found her so adorable when she tells Barry that she wants to eat his cheeks, ehehe. The chemistry between her and Adam Sandler is absolutely great and totally saves the film.
Perhaps the only disappointing scene was when Adam Sandler did *not* beat the heck out of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character, heh. (PSH was absolutely great as the villain of the movie with that beard of his, harr harr.)
All in all, this was quite a lovely comedy and I can see myself watching it again one day when I feel like a heart-warming, but not kitsch-y love story.