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Punch-drunk Love is not the ordinary Sandler flick
Oscar buzz for the actor
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Arthur J Pais
A typical Adam Sandler film opens in 2500 movie theaters. But Punch-Drunk Love opens in just a handful of theaters in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto on Friday.
It is not that the film is an esoteric work or that Sandler, who is often called a slob comic superstar, has suddenly gone arty. This is a lightly entertaining, idiosyncratic comedy also has a endearing and very unexpected performance by the actor generally known for low brow comedy in such films as Big Daddy.
You surely know that the film, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights), is not the ordinary Sandler flick. For, a typical Sandler movie does not travel to film festivals, right? And a typical Sandler film does not get invited to be the centerpiece of the New York Film Festival, right? And a run-of-the-mill Sandler film never creates an Oscar buzz, like this film has done, right?
Columbia Pictures, which is positioning the film as a major Oscar contender, wants to build a terrific must-see aura around the film which had its world premiere last month at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Sandler plays Barry Egan, a shy salesman of toilet plungers, who has to deal with his seven sisters and the dates they set up for him. A total social misfit, he gets into one problem after another. When he gets hooked on phone sex, he steps on a few toes --- and soon, three thugs are chasing him. But there could be some salvation for him. His hobby of collecting pudding coupons pays off spectacularly and he acquires enough flyer miles to pursue his mysterious woman.
The wonderful ovation the film received at the Toronto International Film Festival continues to reverberate in other cities too. "Sandler is absolutely perfect," The Toronto Star stated. "It's Sandler's head-turning performance and Anderson's unfailingly extraordinary direction makes this movie such a standout."
"Sandler will shock a lot of people with the ferocity and feeling of his performance," wrote Peter Travers in Rolling Stone, "especially those snobs who dismiss Sander's movies as moronic drool without actually seeing them." Though many die-hard fans of Sandler would be disappointed at the lack of physical comedy in the film, the genuine fans (and many new fans) will appreciate the gentle comedy.
The New York Times which gave the film a raving review noted, "No plot summary can do justice to the wild, sweet pleasures of Punch-Drunk Love."
The film is "sweet and strange with an ending whose heart-melting sincerity had several tough critics (including this one) in tears," confessed The Times' A O Scott.
But not everyone lauded Sandler. While Los Angeles News gave the film three stars out of four, the reviewer noted: "If so much of the movie wasn't just Adam Sandler doing what he does, maybe we would come away with a deeper understanding of what all was meant." The headline read 'Smart director, dumb star yield Punch-Drunk Love'.
Emily Watson, who received a lot of attention for her performance as a blind woman drawn to a mysterious man in Red Dragon, is a shy and enigmatic British woman in this film, friend one of Barry's sisters. The budding romance between her and Barry is a key component of the film. But at the Toronto and New York screenings, some of Watson's fans complained that Anderson's script has concentrated so much on Sandler that her character gets shortchanged.
In Daily News, Jack Mathews complained that some of the plot elements did not make sense. But overall, he loved the film, admiring a restrained performance by Sandler. Giving the film three and half stars out of four, he wrote: "It is refreshing to watch a romantic comedy unlike any you have seen before. Punch-Drunk Love is an original."