Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) is a child-man character prone to explosive anger, much like other Adam Sandler characters. But wait, this one is very different. Instead of a comedy, this is an art film where Sandler really delves deep into his character to find the source of his anger. It seems that his emotional development was stunted by the fact that with seven sisters, he was the only boy. They tease and torment him, but he can't really fight back, so it is all bottled up inside, except when it explodes in periodic outbursts.

The story was inspired by an article in 'Time' magazine about a University of California civil engineer name David Phillips who took Healthy Choice up on their offer of frequent-flyer miles in exchange for purchasing their products. He bought 12,150 cups of pudding for just $3,000 and thereby acquired 1.25 million frequent-flyer miles (after waiting 6 to 8 weeks for them to process his coupons).

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[Barry looks around... ]
Barry: Healthy Choice and American Airlines got together and put this promotion: If you buy any 10 Healthy Choice products, they will reward you with 500 frequent flier miles; with this special coupon, they'll up it to 1,000 miles. So, I think they are trying to push their teriyaki chicken which is $1.79, but I went to the supermarket and I looked around and I saw that they had pudding... for 25¢ a cup... comes in packages of four. But insanely... the barcodes... are on the individual cups! So, quarter a cup, say you bought $2.50 worth. That's worth 500... with the coupon it's 1,000 miles. It's a marketing mistake but I'm taking advantage of it. If you were to spend $3,000, that would get you a million frequent flier miles. You would never have to pay for a ticket the rest of your life.
Lena: You... you bought all that pudding so that you could get frequent flier miles?
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Lena is played by Emily Watson. Barry's sisters both set him up and simultaneously try to sabotage the relationship, but by clever subterfuge he manages to keep it a secret. Besides the pudding, there is also a mysterious harmonium that 'falls off a truck' (no, really, it actually does) in the street by Barry's warehouse. Barry owns his own business, though when he wears a suit and tie in an attempt to project a professional image, his sisters still see him as their kid brother playing dress up.

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Barry: I didn't ask for a shrink - that must've been somebody else. Also, that pudding isn't mine. Also, I'm wearing this suit today because I had a very important meeting this morning and I don't have a crying problem.
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To further complicate things, he calls a phone sex line and gets ensnared in an extortion shake down. Dean Trumbell (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is a Mattress Salesman in Utah who orchestrates the plot.

It is a very strange movie, but Barry finally confronts his problems with Lena, pudding, and the Mattress Man. For an Adam Sandler movie, it is quite empowering. Though he is not ready to "give a concert of anything" he does manage to make some music with his harmonium, and it meshes with the soundtrack in a most satisfying way.

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Barry: I have a love in my life. It makes me stronger than anything you can imagine.
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Paul Thomas Anderson is quite a director. The 2002 'Punch-Drunk Love' was quite different than other things he's done, such as 'There Will Be Blood' which won the Oscar for Daniel Day-Lewis, and it is also quite different from anything else Adam Sandler has done, or probably will ever do again. It is a quirky and strange movie, but well worth watching.

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Barry: I have to get more pudding for this trip to Hawaii. As I just said that out loud I realize it sounded a little strange but it's not.
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FILMS DIRECTED BY PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON

There Will Be Blood (2007)
Magnolia (1999)
Boogie Nights (1997)
Hard Eight (Special Edition) (1996)

FILM ROLES OF ADAM SANDLER

Anger Management (Widescreen Edition) (2003) .... Dave Buznik
Little Nicky (New Line Platinum Series) (2000) .... Nicky
The Waterboy (1998) .... Robert 'Bobby' Boucher Jr.
The Wedding Singer (1998) .... Robbie
Shakes the Clown (1991) .... Dink the Clown

FILM ROLE OF PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN

Capote (2005) .... Truman Capote

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Lena: Oh... I'm sorry... was that like a secret pudding?
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Adam Sandler is commonly viewed as a goofball of an actor. His classics include Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison and its no surprise that those roles garnered him no critical acclaim. With 'Punch Drunk Love' he has silenced those who thought him incapable of serious acting. This movie is an eclectic rollercoaster of sound and imagery. Watching the metamorphosis of Sandler's character is as wonderful an experience as any other i've had with film or television. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who appreciates art, Adam Sandler, and general bad-assery. Oh, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman's in it. Checkmate.

If you love Adam Sandler movies you probably won't like this one. If you hate his movies and like something different then you will really appreciate this movie. I can swing both ways. I love all of his movies and this is my favorite. I absolutely loved it!

Three points of note:

1. The original (in both senses) soundtrack. Barry Egan (Sandler) has psychological problems. He's prone to paroxysms of destructive rage, sparked primarily by his seven domineering and dysfunctional sisters. But his issues are more complex than anger management. In my lay opinion, he seems to be too close to the bad end of the autistic spectrum: he often appears oblivious to, and overwhelmed by, everyday stimuli (such as meeting new people, especially women); he's emotionally and socially stunted (but in a way distinct from the typical Sandlerian manchild); and verbal communication isn't exactly his strong suit (except when intimidation is called for). So what has this got to do with the soundtrack? Well, it struck me that the percussive, layered, and sometimes cacophonous music that plays when we see things from Barry's perspective is meant to convey the blooming, buzzing confusion that he's experiencing. It's as if we can hear his inner chaos. At any rate, these conspicuous and distinctive tracks help bring atmosphere to the foreground of the film, which is a plus, because the story itself is nothing special; the magic of this film is in the execution, the details, the tone.

2. The cinematography. I am no expert, but Anderson clearly uses some cool and unusual shots and lenses. He also intersperses some colorful abstract art by frequent collaborator Jeremy Blake (R.I.P.). You'll have to see for yourself.

3. The descent into fantasy. The film starts off quirky but fundamentally realistic. Ayn Rand didn't write the dialogue, and no one makes a dwarf-tossing joke in the middle of a pitched battle over the moral fate of the world -- everyone acts like a real person, with real emotions, however eccentric. But once the love story takes off -- literally, to Hawaii -- no amount of chemistry can make up for the fact that we have no idea what Lena Leonard (Watson) sees in Barry. She's stable, successful, and has a British accent; he's crazy, strapped for cash (he's counting on a milking an overgenerous frequent flyer miles promotion -- based on a true story), and sounds like Adam Sandler. Yet she's really into him. Maybe this is just Anderson situating himself in the romantic comedy section (love at first sight), but still, there should be something, however implausible, behind the romance if he wants the audience to care. (Interestingly, maybe he doesn't: maybe he was that committed to style over substance; maybe he wanted to focus exclusively on Barry's emotions; maybe this was his way of satirizing the genre.) At any rate, viewers are free to form their own understandings of characters' motivations.

Not worth much more of my time than to tell you this movie rates right up there among my Top Stinkers of all time. I've only walked out of 2 movies in my life: Caligula and Punch-Drunk Love.

One for being over the top with in your face uber-offensive reality, the other for nearly achieving a type of 'just stay there in your seat and stare at the screen' hypnotic apathy heretofore unrecorded among movie gazing audiences.

Folks that actually liked Caligula for it's delivery of a taste of tyrannical realism would probably also rush to the theaters to see movies about kids who pull R or L wings and legs off live insects just to watch them circle into a pathetic, draining death, ...a place where the minds of those who might tend enjoy P-DL have already achieved a certain level of comfort.

Gee... I hope I'm not sugar coating this very dangerous flick to the unsuspecting. Like the frog who would immediately jump out if thrown into a pot of boiling water but would not notice his impending demise had the water been ever so slowly brought up to soup temperature, this flick can actually bore you to death before you even know you're being cooked!

P-DL just COULD be part of an evil government plot to synthetically lobotomize an entire segment of our population, ...the former mentally active AdamSandlerites. ...who knows!