I Have A Love In My Life, by Tyler Smith

PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002)
Written and Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Luis Guzman, Phillip Seymour Hoffman

Movies about romance are a dime a dozen. The ratio of good romances to bad is about one to fifty. You can usually tell the good ones, because you yourself can relate to what’s being shown, whether it be positive or negative. These are films that truly understand the wonderful, yet unusual, nature of love. The bad romances will have swells of music in awkward places and characters who make huge pronouncements in the midst of large crowds. These films, rather than try to comprehend what love is, they’d rather dictate what love should be. I’m of the opinion that this can be very destructive. If you enter into a relationship with stupid expectations of “movie romance,” you’ll be sorely disappointed when you see what it actually is.

Which is why Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love is so appealing to me. While it is mostly told from the point of view of one character, rather than two, it still rings very true. The desperation, the novelty, the reality of love is on full display in the film. But, more than anything, it’s a movie about the necessity of love.

Adam Sandler plays Barry, a sad, lonely man. With seven nagging sisters, he is surrounded by women, but no romance. He’s a smart man; he has started his own business and has devised a clever plan to gain thousands of frequent flyer miles. But, alas, he has nowhere to fly to. His desperate loneliness often leads to extreme rage or sudden weeping.

His is not a happy, healthy life. One gets the impression that someday soon- perhaps very soon- this man will put a gun in his mouth. The situation only gets worse as he calls a phone sex line and finds himself more interested in the girl’s everyday life than anything sexual she might have to say. And, finally, as if that weren’t enough, he soon finds himself swindled out of some money. Oddly enough, he seems not to care.
Here is a man who needs love.

Soon a woman comes along who is affectionate, friendly, and, above all, understanding. Her patience allows him to be who he is. He is honest with her about his extreme emotions, whereas, previously, he has tried desperately to hide them.

With her in his life, Barry finds purpose. As she goes to Hawaii on a business trip, he finds that, finally, he has somewhere to fly to. The people who stole money from him and hurt him show up again, this time hurting her. He fights for her, even when he would not fight for himself.

Love gives him strength and meaning. He is suddenly excited about living, because he actually has somebody to share his life with.

This is a movie that understands the effect that love can have on a person. It can give your life purpose and help you see yourself in a new way. It can make you realize what you truly care about; your priorities instantly realign themselves.

And just to show that he understands love, Anderson throws in an occasional visual of swirling colors and lights. It is a beautiful visual and his including it is a way of saying, “You know what? Sometimes words just aren’t enough.”

The movie is, at times, a mess and requires more of you than you’re willing to give. But, if you remove your expectations and simply accept the film as it is, you’ll find it is a very rewarding- and, yes, sometimes draining- experience.

In other words, and at the risk of sounding completely cheesy, the film itself is just like love.