Premise – Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) owns a small toilet accessory company and has seven sisters. He is put down by them at every opportunity and has a small rage problem. When Lena Leonard (Emily Watson) enters his life he falls head over heals in love. The only stumbling block to his happiness being his aforementioned rage problem and a phone sex company that is extorting him for large sums of money and has consequently sent a group of heavies to collect said cash.

If you look at the basic premise of Punch-Drunk Love you would be forgiven for thinking it was your standard Adam Sandler comedy. Sandler’s character is dysfunctional, he falls for a woman and some crazy stuff happens along the way. The difference here is that Punch-Drunk Love is directed by modern day genius Paul Thomas Anderson.

Anderson has made two of recent memories finest films in ‘Magnolia’ and ‘Boogie Nights’, both showed that Anderson could tell an intriguing story, get exemplary performances from his actors and that he could more than hold his own behind the camera. That he can extract an exemplary performance from Adam Sandler is only further proof of this mans undoubted talents. PT Anderson stamps his brand all over this film, from long lingering shots, to lengthy stead-i-cam shots, to the quirky nature of the story, the film ‘feels’ like a PT Anderson film.

The quirky nature of the film is enhanced by some startling visuals. An amazing, almost beautiful car crash near the beginning of the film, a small piano being left on the side walk, Barry’s many bursts of rage, the gorgeous use of primary colour wipes between scenes. Punch-Drunk Love is certainly never boring to watch and the quirkiness also extends to the musical score.

Jon Brion’s score is fairly out there, an abstract score that initially jars and sometimes makes dialogue hard to make out, but it perfectly reflects the madness that inhabits Barry’s head. As the film moves on and Barry falls more and more for Lena the score reflects this to the point of the beautiful song that plays over their Hawaii meeting.

For the record, I’ve never been that big a fan of Adam Sandler. I like a couple of his early films, and The Wedding Singer is an excellent little film, but all his other movies have left me cold. His films seem to continually recycle the same character, they are not particularly funny and they tend to have Rob Schneider in them, generally not a good thing.  In Punch-Drunk Love Sandler is for the most part playing the same type of character he always plays, but by being reigned in by Anderson he gives what is easily the best work of his career.

Sandler’s Egan is a timid man, whom is constantly put down by his sisters. He bottles up his feelings and periodically explodes in wild bouts of rage, smashing things and shouting at people. When Lena comes into his life he feels empowered by the love and feels he can take on anything. Sandler brings the role to life, he is dark when the film requires it (the darkest Sandler has ever played, far beyond any of the other lunatics he has played), and you feel that given the right circumstances Barry could do something terrible. But, he is also tender, especially around Lena.

Given that the film is a mere 90 minutes long (it’s an indication of how films are growing in length that I describe 90 minutes as ‘mere’) and that the film concentrates so much on Barry, it’s inevitable that the other characters are short changed. Emily Watson is a delight to watch in any movie, she is just as cute as a button. Unfortunately her character in Punch-Drunk love is a little underdeveloped; we never really learn anything about her other than she may be as strange as Barry and that she was once married.

Luis Guzman is Barry’s friend and work mate, he has little screen time, but any time with The Guzman is time well spent. The same goes for Philip Seymour Hoffman, a joy to watch, but again has little to do. Hoffman, as the owner of the phone sex company, does have some of the films best lines and contributes heavily to the more comedic moments of the film.

It’s not often that I complain that a film is too short, but I found myself pining to learn more about Barry’s world after the credits began to roll. I wanted to learn more about Lena, I wanted to see more of Guzman, heck I just wanted more. What there is, I loved, for some strange reason I connected heavily with the Barry Egan character and I got a warm and fuzzy feeling from watching the film. By the time the credits rolled I was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Punch-Drunk Love is a wonderful film, blackly comic and at times a little out there, but the film has real heart and at the end of the day is all about love (the title might give this away). One of the finest romantic comedies I have ever seen, a must for fans of PT Anderson and for fans of dark, off beat cinema. I would suggest however, that if you think ‘The Waterboy’ is the pinnacle of film comedy that this film may not be to your tastes……..