Tell me a story

Viewed on December 22, 2012 on Netflix Streaming

This was my third time watching this movie, and it’s still just as entertaining as the first time. Easily my favorite Adam Sandler movie. He’s played the troubled simpleton before, but never so interestingly. I’m actually invested in this character and would want to follow his life outside the movie. As much as I enjoy an Adam Sandler movie,  I’m not sure I’ve felt that way about any of his other characters.

In a nutshell Sandler’s character, Barry Egan, is a simple, bumbling man with a bit of an anger problem. He has about seven sisters who walk all over him and make him feel like nothing. Things change for Barry when one of his sisters sets him up with her friend, Lena (played by Emily Watson). At the same time Barry’s previous dalliance with a phone-sex worker starts coming back to bite him. What I love about the movie is just how strange it is. It starts with Barry finding an abandoned harmonium. He’s collecting pudding to cash in on a rewards program. He owns a company that manufactures and sells plungers. He’s recently started wearing the same suit everyday. It’s so weird but so good.

But what I really love about this movie is the background music. The scene where Barry’s sister, Elizabeth (played by Mary Lynn Rajskub) introduces him to Lena is one of my favorite scenes in cinema. The music is chaotic, schizophrenic almost and introduces tension and weight into a scene that isn’t particularly tense on its own. It does such an amazing job of capturing Barry’s inner turmoil. Every writing teacher I’ve ever had has professed the power of showing not telling, and here director P. T. Anderson is able to show us how Barry feels through music. It’s an awesome feat, and one that he manages to pull of in just about all his movies. Think of how well ingrained the music is used in Magnolia and for that matter how well silence is used in There Will Be Blood. I mean, come on, you have to love P.T. Anderson just for that alone!

My Rating:

Punch Drunk Love
Writer/Director: Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, The Master)